The NAMRI | SME Board of Directors makes policy for the institution that represents manufacturing research leadership in industry, government and academia in North America and the world. The board is comprised of the NAMRI | SME Executive Committee (past president, president, president-elect and secretary), the Scientific Committee chair and six NAMRI | SME at-large directors. The past president of the institution is replaced on the board of directors by the retiring president immediately following NAMRC. NAMRI | SME Past Presidents President Dale LombardoSpecial Processes Leader, Manufacturing Chiefs OfficeGE AerospaceNew York Dale Lombardo leads a diverse team of manufacturing technologists working across GE Aerospace’s broad process and product portfolio. His team links materials to design to customers through a variety of special processes used in the manufacture of jet engines. Lombardo’s group manages the processes’ technical and quality requirements via a distributed team of hundreds of experts and practitioners across engineering and manufacturing. His team is a key part of how GE Aerospace maintains high-quality standards while also leaning forward into novel special processes and process control strategies. Lombardo graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in mechanical engineering with a specialization in mechatronics and controls. He has worked in a variety of manufacturing technology roles for GE including Global Research, GE Power and GE Aerospace. Lombardo’s personal technical background is in machining, monitoring, surface treatment (peening) and surface finishing. He has represented himself and GE on industry task groups (Nadcap), standards boards (ASME B46.1), and various panels and paper review processes including NAMRI|SME and CIRP. Lombardo holds multiple patents in a broad array of manufacturing-related disciplines. He is also a volunteer and mentor in his local school district and supports STEM activities from elementary through graduate-level programs locally. SME Member Since 2012 Video Bio President-Elect Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME, FASMEProfessor and Department Chair, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Case Western Reserve UniversityCleveland, Ohio Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME, FASME, is the Cady Staley Professor and Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Case Western Reserve University. Since receiving his PhD from TU Berlin, Germany, in 1991, he has been working in the fields of multiphysics sensing, multiresolution signal processing, AI/machine learning and wireless communication for monitoring and control of manufacturing processes and product quality. He has published two books, over 450 technical papers (including 220 journal articles), and holds 13 patents. Dr. Gao is a Fellow of SME, ASME, IEEE, and CIRP, and a Distinguished Fellow of IIVA (The International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration). He received several professional awards, including the SME Gold Medal, SME Eli Whitney Productivity Award, ASME Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal, ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award, IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society Technical Award, IEEE Best Application in Instrumentation and Measurement Award, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Andrew P. Sage Best Transactions Paper Award. He served as the Chair of the CIRP Collaborative Working Group on AI in Manufacturing (CWG-AI) and a Senior Editor of the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. He is among SME’s “20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing” and was recognized by Web of Science as a ClarivateTM “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2023 and 2024, respectively. SME Member Since 2005 Video Bio Past President Ihab Ragai, PhD, PE, CMfgE, FASMEProfessor of EngineeringThe Pennsylvania State UniversityThe Behrend CollegeErie, Pennsylvania Ihab Ragai, PhD, PE, is a Professor of Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University, Erie. He is also a Visiting Professor at Rosenheim Technical University of Applied Sciences, Germany. His research interests include advanced manufacturing processes, smart manufacturing, machine and tool monitoring, design optimization, and materials constitutive modelling. For over 20 years, he has held several positions in the aerospace and heavy equipment industries. Prior to joining academia, he was a Senior Engineering Manager at Hitachi Canada, overseeing projects related to product development, structural and systems design, and manufacturing research. Dr. Ragai serves as the 2024-25 NAMRI President. He also served as the Chair and Host of NAMRC 47-MSEC 2019, a Director on the NAMRI Board, the 2020-22 NAMRI Scientific Committee Chair, and the 2014 MSEC Technical Program Chair. Additionally, he is a guest editor of SME’s “Journal of Manufacturing Systems,” “Journal of Manufacturing Processes,” and “Manufacturing Letters.” He is a registered Professional Engineer in Canada and the USA, a Certified Manufacturing Engineer, a fellow of ASME, a research fellow of DAAD Germany, and a recipient of several national and international awards. SME Member Since 1998 Video Bio Second Past President KC Morris, FSMEInformation Modeling and Testing Group LeaderNational Institute of Standards and TechnologyGaithersburg, Maryland KC Morris leads the Life Cycle Engineering Group in NIST's Engineering Lab. Her research interests are in smart and sustainable manufacturing, and include techniques for design, testing and evaluation of systems and standards. Currently, she leads efforts towards standards for transitioning manufacturing to a circular economy. Circular economy offers to improve the efficiency in the use of shared global resources through recovery of products and materials past their initial use. Her background in computer science, information modeling, and knowledge representation contributes to digital engineering and manufacturing solutions while ensuring that new practices lead to more competitive and sustainable manufacturing. During the 116th Congress (2018-2020) KC served as an ASME Congressional Fellow where she managed the bipartisan House Manufacturing Caucus. Earlier in her career, KC was a key contributor to the foundational implementation standards for product data exchange (ISO 10303, a.k.a. STEP – the Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) and leader of the XML Testbed project that provided tools to support the development of information standards based in XML for integration within manufacturing supply chains and across the federal government. SME Member Since 2018 Video Bio Secretary Andy Wells, PhD, PEPrincipal Technical Program ManagerZT SystemsSecaucus, New Jersey Dr. Andrew Wells brings extensive industrial, governmental, and academic experience in advanced manufacturing to the NAMRI board of directors. He currently leads technical programs at ZT Systems, part of Sanmina, focused on increasing the quality and speed of production for next-generation computer servers powering data centers. Dr. Wells served for six years as a program director in the U.S. National Science Foundation's Advanced Manufacturing program, where he supported fundamental research to advance American manufacturing technologies. He co-chaired the cross-NSF Future Manufacturing initiative, which distributed over $160 million for research and education enabling transformative cyber-, eco- and bio-manufacturing technologies. Dr. Wells has over 25 years of experience developing precision capital equipment for manufacturing and research at the micro- and nanoscale. As a technical program manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific and FEI Company, he led multidisciplinary international teams in developing scanning electron microscopes, focused ion beam systems, and automated sample preparation tools for semiconductor, materials science, and life science laboratories. Earlier in his career, he developed laser and mechanical micromachining equipment at Electro Scientific Industries and taught mechanical systems design and solid modeling as an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Video Bio Scientific Committee Chair Xun Xu, PhD, FSME, FASMEProfessor, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics EngineeringThe University of AucklandAuckland, New Zealand Xun W. Xu, PhD, FSME, FASME, is a professor of Manufacturing at the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, The University of Auckland. He has been working in the field of intelligent manufacturing solutions for some 30 years. Dr. Xu is an internationally recognized expert in smart manufacturing systems, STEP-NC, cloud-based manufacturing and smart manufacturing. He serves as an Associate Editor and member of the Editorial Board of a number of international journals and has published over 350 research papers. Dr. Xu is the Director of Laboratory for Industry 4.0 Smart Manufacturing Systems (LISMS), the only Laboratory for Industry 4.0 in New Zealand. His current research focus is on Industry 4.0 technologies, e.g. smart factories, digital twins, cloud manufacturing, model-based manufacturing, and AI for manufacturing. Dr. Xu is a Fellow of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Engineering New Zealand (EngNZ). In 2020, he is named one of the “20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing” by SME. He was also recognized by Web of Science as a Clarivate™ Highly Cited Researcher in 2020. Video Bio Scientific Committee Chair-Elect Stefania Bruschi, PhDProfessor, Manufacturing TechnologiesUniversity of PadovaPadova, Italy Stefania Bruschi, PhD, is a professor of Manufacturing Technologies at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Padova, Italy, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the University. Her major research areas include sheet and bulk metal forming and machining of metal alloys, focusing on material behavior, process, and product performances. The research activities are carried out in the framework of EU and Italian-funded projects, and research contracts with Italian and European manufacturing companies. She is a fellow of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering), and currently Vice-Chair of the CIRP Scientific Technical Committee “Forming”. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI), where now serves as Chair-elect of the Scientific Committee. She is a co-author of more than 300 Scopus-indexed publications. Video Bio Ex-Officio Brett Peters, PhDDean of the College of Engineering & Applied ScienceUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Brett Peters, PhD is a past chair of the SME Member Council and has served on the SME International Awards and Recognition Committee, Finance Committee, and Joint Nominating Committee. He is a past president of the College-Industry Council on Material Handling Education and has served on the board of directors of Midwest Energy Research Consortium, Milwaukee7’s Next Generation Manufacturing Council, and the REMADE Strategic Advisory Committee. He previously served on the editorial board for SME’s Journal of Manufacturing Systems. He is currently dean of the College of Engineering & Applied Science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial and systems engineering from University of Arkansas (UofA) and Georgia Institute of Technology. He spent his faculty career at Texas A&M University (TAMU) progressing through faculty ranks to professor and then served as department head for 10 years prior to moving to UWM. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers. He received the Outstanding Young Alumni award and was inducted into the Arkansas Academy of Industrial Engineering at UofA and has received the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer award, as well as other distinguished university awards, including the Ford Faculty Fellowship at TAMU. SME Member Since 1994. NAMRI | SME Directors Wayne Cai, PhD, FSME, FASME, FSAETechnical FellowGeneral MotorsWarren, Michigan Dr. Wayne Cai is a Technical Fellow at General Motors Global R&D Center in Warren, Michigan, USA. His research area is advanced manufacturing technologies, where mechanics, materials, and mathematics (statistics) are used to innovate and optimize manufacturing processes and systems for improved quality, reliability, and reduced cost. He is well-recognized for innovations with over 40 granted patents and many GM trade-secret inventions. He authored over 100 peer-reviewed research papers, one book on li-ion battery manufacturing, and is a frequently invited speaker at a variety of industrial and academic forums. Dr. Cai was Chair of SAE Hybrid Electric Vehicle Committee, Chair of ASME MED Manufacturing Process Technical Committee and currently is a board member of NAMRI|SME and co-chair of SME|NAMRC Manufacturing Processes Committee. He is serving or had served as associate editors for a number of prestigious ASME, SME and SAE research journals. Dr. Cai received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and is a Fellow of SME, ASME, and SAE. Qing (Cindy) Chang, PhD, FSME, FASMEProfessor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringUniversity of VirginiaCharlottesville, Virginia Qing (Cindy) Chang, PhD, FSME, FASME, is a Professor with the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia (UVA). Her primary research focuses on modeling and analyzing dynamic manufacturing systems, enhancing manufacturing system sustainability and efficiency through adaptive control and machine learning based control, and exploring human-robot collaborations in manufacturing domain. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) (including NSF CAREER award), Department of Energy (DOE), and various industries. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Chang amassed a decade of experience at General Motors Research & Development Center, where she received the highest award in GM, Boss Kettering Awards, three times in recognition of her research on improving production efficiency. Dr. Chang is a SME and ASME fellow and has been recognized as one of “20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing” by SME in 2020. Video Bio Brad Kinsey, PhD, FSMEAssociate Dean for Research and ProfessorUniversity of New HampshireDurham, New Hampshire Brad Kinsey is the Associate Dean for Research in the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences (CEPS) and a Professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of New Hampshire. His research, which is on the mechanics, materials, and manufacturing innovations of deformation processes, has been funded by industry and several US government agencies, including the National Science Foundation (including a CAREER award), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Defense, and National Institute of Standards and Technology and led to over 200-peer publications. His awards include Fellow status in the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and CIRP (International Institution for Production Engineering Research), and the Ralph R. Teetor Award from the Society of Automotive Engineers. In 2013, he served as the DOE Representative to the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, which coordinates the Manufacturing USA network. SME Member since 2004. Video Bio Barbara Linke, Dr.-Ing. habil.ProfessorUniversity of California, DavisDavis, California Professor Dr.-Ing. habil. Barbara S. Linke is a faculty member of the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department and a principal investigator at the Advanced Highway Maintenance and Construction Technology (AHMCT) Research Center, both at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She completed her Diplom, doctorate, and Habilitation in mechanical engineering at the RWTH Aachen University, Germany. She worked as research associate at the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering WZL at the RWTH Aachen University and as postdoc at the University of California, Berkeley before joining UC Davis in 2012. She served as vice-chair of undergraduate studies in her department at UC Davis from 2019-22 and as executive committee member of the Manufacturing Engineering Division of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) from 2019-2024. Her research interests include sustainable manufacturing, transportation research, abrasive machining technologies, part quality, smart and data-driven manufacturing, among others. She has published more than 55 journal publications, 50 refereed conference papers, and 2 books and co-edited 4 books. Arif Malik, PhD, FASMEProfessorThe University of Texas at DallasDallas, Texas Arif Malik, PhD, FASME, is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Dallas. He received his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Wright State University in 2007. Prior to this he held several engineering positions in industry, including in manufacturing process control, metals R&D, and field applications engineering. He also spent 5 years in a technology start-up company that he co-founded to supply process control software to the metals manufacturing industry. Malik received the NSF CAREER Award in 2015, and his research has led to advances in the understanding of both traditional and emerging manufacturing processes, such as in rolling, laser treatment/processing, and hybrid manufacturing, as well as energy applications. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Manufacturing Processes and is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. He has also been a passionate advocate in promoting opportunities for neuro-diverse students to succeed in manufacturing careers through “Engineering Brighter Futures for Autism” events conducted in partnership with industry, occupational therapy experts, and advocacy groups. Video Bio Radu Pavel, PhD Director, Industrial InnovationARCTOS Technology Solutions, LLC Dr. Radu Pavel is the Director of Industrial Innovation at ARCTOS Technology Solutions (ARCTOS), in which he is focused on driving applied research and technology and product solutions in advanced manufacturing and sustainment for aerospace and defense applications. Dr. Pavel has 30 years of experience in mechanical and manufacturing engineering and has earned doctoral degrees in both disciplines. His expertise was developed through research focused on composite materials, machining/grinding, monitoring and diagnostics of manufacturing assets and processes, IIoT, robotics and automation, additive manufacturing and other areas. Prior to joining ARCTOS, Dr. Pavel held positions of VP of Engineering, CTO and Chief Engineer at TechSolve, Inc. – a state and federal Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) center in Ohio. In his functions, he supervised and worked on a large variety of advanced manufacturing projects, including those focused on accelerating the adoption of digital manufacturing technologies, and implementation of Industry 4.0/Smart Manufacturing research and educational programs. He is a member of various working groups for Manufacturing USA institutes, manufacturing-related standardization committees, and key professional societies. Dr. Pavel published and presented at many conferences of international repute and organized numerous panels and symposiums. He is a Fellow of ASME, and recipient of the David Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award. Dr. Pavel is a member of SME and participates in activities supporting the SME community since 2000.
