The Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in the UK has awarded the 2008 Bessemer Gold Medal to Dr. Tridibesh Mukherjee, Tata Steel Group Director, Integration and Development for his service to the steel industry.

The Institute promotes and develops all aspects of materials science and engineering, geology, mining and associated technologies, mineral and petroleum engineering and extraction metallurgy and is the professional body for the international materials, minerals and mining community.

It awards a number of medals and prizes to recognise achievements within the profession, of which one of the most prestigious is the Bessemer Gold Medal that is given to the acknowledge outstanding services and contribution to the steel industry.

The award will be presented to Dr. T Mukherjee on July 2, 2008 in London, post which Dr. Mukherjee will deliver the Bessemer Lecture.

Previous winners of the award include Mr. J. R. D. Tata (1986), Mr. Stuart Pettifor (formerly COO of Corus, 2005), Sir Brian Moffat (formerly Chairman of British Steel, 1996) and Mr. Lakshmi Mittal (President and CEO, ArcelorMittal, 2007).

Dr. Mukherjee joined Tata Steel in 1971 and rose to Deputy Managing Director (Steel). As Group Director now, he is responsible for Integration and R&D and Technology.

Tata Steel today is the world’s sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has a crude steel capacity of 28.1 million tonnes and over 82,000 employees across four continents.