Luis Segovia Guerrero defended his doctoral thesis on Thursday, November 6, 2025, titled ‘Manufacturing and structural and mechanical behavior of stainless steel components produced by direct energy deposition with plasma arc and wire’. The jury gave an overall excellent grade, highlighting the presentation and analysis of results as outstanding. The thesis was considered highly innovative for connecting the parametric optimization of the PA-WAAM technique with the real needs of the industry, introducing advances in multi-material joining and sustainability, areas little explored in the state of the art. The panel, which endorsed this evaluation, was chaired by Professor Sergio I. Molina (UCA), an expert in Materials and Nanotechnology and head of the INNANOMAT group, and included María Asunción Valiente Bermejo (University West, Sweden), with a research profile in welding and additive manufacturing of stainless steels, and Paula M. Lousada Silveirinha Vilarinho (University of Aveiro, Portugal), President of the Portuguese Society of Materials and leader of the Electroceramics research group. The thesis was supervised by Dr. Nuria Baladés Ruiz and Dr. David Sales Lérida, and developed in the Smart Manufacturing Lab of the UCA-SEA Innovation Center at the University of Cádiz.

In his defense, Segovia was accompanied by family members, members of the INNANOMAT group, the IMEYMAT institute, the Acerinox group, and collaborators from the Smart Manufacturing Lab.