2008 SME College of Fellows

Eight manufacturing leaders have been elected to the 2008 SME College of Fellows. Recipients are recognized by their peers and the manufacturing community as key contributors to the social, technical and educational progress of manufacturing. 

	Kuang-Chao Fan, PhD, FSME Distinguished and Chon-Juo Zhang Chair Professor Department of Mechanical Engineering National Taiwan University Taipei, Taiwan

Kuang-Chao Fan has been a professor of mechanical engineering at National Taiwan University since 1989. Among his many accomplishments, he has served as the chairman of the Chinese Institute of Automation Technology, the chair of the Taipei No. 242 and the associate dean of the Engineering College at National Taiwan University. He is also the vice chairman of the Automatic Optical Inspection Equipment Association in Taiwan. Fan was a consultant to Taiwan's Ministry of Education from 1994 to 1999 and is currently a national project reviewer for its government. His research interests include manufacturing metrology, precision machining and machine tool technology, and he has published more than 80 journal papers. Additionally, Fan is the author or coauthor of three books and 150 conference papers delivered at symposiums throughout Asia. 

	William J. Geary, FSME President, Boeing Canada Operations Limited & General Manager Boeing, Winnipeg Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

William "Willy" Geary is the general manager of Boeing Winnipeg operations. Appointed in June 2007, Geary is responsible for leading the largest aerospace composite manufacturer in Canada, and the country's third largest aerospace facility. He was the manufacturing superintendent of Final Assembly for 737 Airplane Programs beginning in September 2006. Prior positions in commercial airplanes include chief engineer for 737 aircraft interiors, director of 737/757 and 747 production engineering, and various management assignments in engineering and tooling. Geary was the 2006 SME President and served on the Society's Board of Directors. In 1990, he was awarded SME's Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. In addition to his long career at Boeing, Geary serves on Gonzaga University's Board of Regents.

	Gert Goch, Dr.-Eng., FSME Director, Bremen Institute of Metrology, Automation and Quality Science University of Bremen Bremen, Germany

Prior to his current role as director of BIMAQ, Gert Goch was a dedicated professor at the University of Hannover, the University of Ulm and the University of Bremen, respectively. As an engineer and researcher, he has distinguished himself as a leader of such specialties as metrology and sensor technology, diagnosis of production processes and industrial automation. Goch holds eight patents and is the author or coauthor of more than 190 scientific publications. His current research efforts have received more than 2 million Euros (approximately $3 million U.S. dollars) a year in public funding.

	Michael F. Molnar, FSME, CMfgE, PE Technical Director Cummins Inc. Columbus, Ind.

Michael Molnar is being honored for his significant contributions to advancing manufacturing technology, public policy and advocacy of the manufacturing engineering profession. Currently, as Cummins Inc.'s director of environmental policy and sustainable development, Molnar has also served as a White House Fellow in support of manufacturing science and technology policy. He has contributed to numerous technical publications and has been a keynote or featured speaker at conferences and symposiums throughout the United States and Germany. Molnar has been an active SME member for 25 years and presently serves on SME's Technical Community Network Steering Committee and the SME Member Council.

	Neal P. Jeffries, PhD, FSME, CMfgE Executive Director Center for Manufacturing Technology Cincinnati

Neal Jeffries is cofounder and president of the Center for Manufacturing Technology. Founded in 1977, this nonprofit institute offers manufacturing technology education for industry and presents about 100 programs each year throughout the United States and overseas on such topics as quick changeover, mistake proofing, lean manufacturing and more. Prior to his current role, Jeffries gained extensive industrial and government experience at various global organizations, such as GE, DuPont and the U.S. Air Force. His dedication to manufacturing technology is also exemplified by his nearly 10 years of preparing the next generation of engineers at the University of Cincinnati. Additionally, Jeffries has not only written two books, but is also the author or coauthor of more than 100 technical papers. He holds nine patents in the United States and overseas, and has engineering degrees from Purdue, Cincinnati, Stanford and MIT.

	Shivakumar Raman, PhD, FSME John A. Myers Professor in Engineering and David Ross Boyd Professor University of Oklahoma Norman, Okla.

Over the past 20 years, Shivakumar Raman has established a reputation as an outstanding educator teaching manufacturing processes and metrology at the undergraduate and graduate levels at the University of Oklahoma. For his years of dedication there, Raman has received several awards, including the Institute of Industrial Engineers' Student Chapter Outstanding Professor Award (five times) as well as the OU Regents' Award for Superior Teaching. Beyond the classroom, his research interests include such topics as machining tribology, tolerance and surface metrology and process variables within manufacturing systems. Raman's research has resulted in improved models of characterizing friction at the tool-chip interface as well as new methods for the characterization of complex geometries for part verification and methods for adaptive metrology. He has coauthored more than 130 articles for journals and conference proceedings.

	K. Scott Smith, PhD, FSME Professor and Deputy Director of the Center for Precision Metrology University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, N.C.

K. Scott Smith is a professor of mechanical engineering at UNC Charlotte, where he is also the deputy director of the Center for Precision Metrology. He previously served as the associate director of the Machine Tool Research Center at the University of Florida. Smith is a fellow of CIRP (the International Academy for Production Engineering). He is also president of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution of SME (NAMRI/SME) and a previous recipient of SME's Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. His career in manufacturing research and education spans more than 20 years. Smith currently holds two patents, and is author or coauthor of more than 100 technical papers.

	Y. Lawrence Yao, PhD, FSME Professor and Chair Department of Mechanical Engineering Columbia University New York

Y. Lawrence Yao is professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Columbia University where he also serves as director of the Manufacturing Research Laboratory. Before joining Columbia in 1994, he served as senior lecturer in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. His research interests include multidisciplinary research in manufacturing and design; nontraditional manufacturing; laser materials processing; laser-assisted material removal, shaping and surface modification; laser applications in industry and art restoration; robotics in industry and health care industry. Yao is the author or coauthor of nearly 100 technical papers and serves as associate editor of SME's two peer-reviewed journals, the Journal of Manufacturing Processes and the Journal of Manufacturing Systems. Beyond teaching and research, he currently serves on several boards, including NAMRI/SME.