Dr Cem Örnek studied Surface Engineering and Materials Science (BSc) at Aalen University of Applied Sciences in Germany, located in the Eastern Alps, where he graduated in 2011. He then joined the Corrosion and Protection Centre and Materials and Performance Centre and Research Centre for Radwaste and Decommissioning at the University of Manchester and has completed his PhD studies on the Performance Characterisation of Duplex Stainless Steel in Nuclear Waste Storage Environment in 2015. His PhD thesis was to better understand environment-assisted cracking in atmospheric environments, with thorough microstructure characterisation. In 2016, Cem joined the Division of Surface and Corrosion Science at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and worked on the state-of-the-art in situ/operando surface science and microstructure characterisation studies on different advanced materials. A particular focus was on the formation and degradation of surface oxide passive films of primarily stainless steels with further interest in the effects of hydrogen and strain. In 2020, he was awarded as an International Outstanding Research Fellow by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey to carry on research and education on hydrogen embrittlement and corrosion characterisation of advanced high-strength steels at Istanbul Technical University.