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.

President

Livan Fratini, PhD 
Chair and Professor
Department of Engineering
University of Palermo
Palermo, Italy

Livan Fratini, PhD, is a chair and professor in the Department of Engineering at University of Palermo, Italy. Fratini's major research areas include process engineering of metal forming and joining operations. He is a fellow of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering), president of ESAFORM (European Scientific Association for Material Forming) and a fellow of AITEM (Italian Association of Mechanical Technology). Fratini has received the F.W. Taylor Medal of CIRP in 2007. He is a co-author of approximately 300 publications. SME Member Since 2014

President-Elect

KC Morris, FSME
Information Modeling and Testing Group Leader
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Maryland

KC Morris, FSME, is an internationally recognized expert in computing and engineering information systems and standards development for digital manufacturing with 30 years of experience. Her research concentrates on introducing smart technology into the manufacturing sector and developing new practices for more competitive and sustainable manufacturing. Morris leads the Information, Modeling and Testing Group in the Engineering Lab at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Currently, she is detailed to the Office of Congressman Tom Reed as an ASME Congressional Fellow, bringing the voice of manufacturing to the halls of Congress. Morris leads the activities of the bipartisan House Manufacturing, which include legislative activities, facilitating topical briefings and sharing the manufacturing perspective. SME Member Since 2018

Secretary

Ihab Ragai, PhD, CMfgE, PE  
Associate Professor of Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
The Behrend College
Erie, Pennsylvania

Ihab Ragai, PhD, CMfgE, PE, is an associate 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, cloud manufacturing, machine and tool monitoring, design optimization and materials constitutive modelling. For over 20 years, Ragai has held several positions in aerospace and heavy equipment industries. Prior to joining academia in 2013, he was a senior engineering manager at Hitachi Canada, overseeing projects related to product development, truck dynamics and fatigue analysis, structural and drive systems design, and manufacturing processes. He served as the chair and host of NAMRC 47-MSEC 2019, a director on the NAMRI | SME Board of Directors and the 2014 MESEC Technical Program chair. Additionally, Ragai is an associate editor for the International Journal of Manufacturing Research and a guest editor of both SME’s Journal of Manufacturing Systems and Journal of Manufacturing Processes. He is a registered professional engineer, a fellow of ASME, a research fellow of DAAD and a recipient of several national and international awards. SME Member Since 1998

Scientific Committee Chair

Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME
Professor and Department Chair Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland

Robert X. Gao, PhD, FSME, is the Cady Staley professor of engineering and department chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. His research is in the areas of multiphysics sensing, multiresolution signal processing, machine learning and wireless communication for improving the observability of dynamical systems such as manufacturing equipment and processes. Gao has authored or co-authored more than 170 peer-reviewed journal articles, two books, several book chapters and holds 12 patents. Currently, he serves as a senior editor for the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics. Gao is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, SME, CIRP (International Academy for Production Engineering) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He is a recipient of several professional honors, including the Eli Whitney Productivity Award from SME, the Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award from ASME, the Technical Award and Best Application Award from the Instrumentation and Measurement Society of IEEE and several best paper awards. Gao has been named one of the 20 most influential professors in smart manufacturing. SME Member Since 2005

Scientific Committee Chair-Elect

Xun Xu, PhD, FASME
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
The University of Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand

Xun W. Xu, PhD, 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 IoT-enabled 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, big industrial data and data analytics. Dr. Xu is a Fellow of the American Society for Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and Engineering New Zealand (EngNZ). In 2020, he is named among 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.

Past President

Brigid A. Mullany, PhD
Professor
Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
University of North Carolina Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina

Brigid Mullany, PhD, received her bachelor's degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University College Dublin, Ireland. After graduation, she received a two-year EU Marie Curie postdoctoral research position at Carl Zeiss in Germany. In 2004, Mullany joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she is a professor working in the area of surface finishing and characterization. Mullany received the SME Kuo K. Wang Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2007 and the NSF CAREER Award in 2008. She is a fellow of the International Academy of Production Engineering (CIRP) and is currently the chair of CIRP’s Scientific Technical Committee on Surfaces. Mullany has previous served as the vice chair on the CIRP collaborative working group focused on Micro Production Process Chains (2012-14). From January 2017 to November 2019, she was a program director in the Advanced Manufacturing Program at the National Science Foundation. SME Member Since 2018

Second Past President

Lihui Wang, PhD, FSME, P.Eng. 
Professor and Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing
KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Stockholm

Lihui Wang, PhD, FSME, P.Eng., is a chair professor of sustainable manufacturing at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. His research interests are focused on cyberphysical systems, real-time monitoring and control, digital twin for predictive maintenance, human-robot collaborations, big data applications in manufacturing, as well as adaptive and sustainable manufacturing systems. A Fellow of SME, Wang is actively engaged in various NAMRI | SME activities. He is the editor-in-chief of the SME Journal of Manufacturing Systems, editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Manufacturing Research and editor-in-chief of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing. Wang is also a fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, CIRP and ASME, and a registered professional engineer in Canada. He has published nine books and authored in excess of 500 scientific publications. Wang's accomplishments have won him 12 international and institutional awards. He is the chairman (2018-20) of the Swedish Production Academy. SME Member Since 1999

NAMRI | SME Directors

Stefania Bruschi, PhD
Professor, Manufacturing Technologies
University of Padova
Italy

Stefania Bruschi, PhD, is professor of Manufacturing Technologies at the Department of Industrial Engineering at University of Padova, Italy, and currently Head of the same department. She is member of Academic Senate at University of Padova. Her major research areas include sheet and bulk metal forming and machining of metal alloys, with particular focus on material behavior, process and product performances. She is a fellow of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering), and currently Secretary of the CIRP Scientific Technical Committee “Forming”. She is co-author of more than 250 Scopus-indexed publications.

Patrick Kwon, PhD
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Michigan State University
Lansing, Michigan

Prof. Kwon has received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1983, MIT in 1985 and University of California (Berkeley) in 1994, respectively. He started his academic career as an assistant professor in Department of Materials Science and Mechanics at Michigan State University (MSU) in 1996 and moved over to Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2000. He was promoted to Professor in Department of Mechanical Engineering at MSU in 2009. He served as associate editor for ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering between 2009 and 2015 and for International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing since 2012. He now serves as Associate chair for graduate studies in Department of Mechanical Engineering since 2017. He has made fundamental contributions in understanding tool wear and minimum quantity lubrication in machining and powder processing in metals and ceramics. Recently, he has worked on metallic additive manufacturing including improving binder jet printing and electron beam melting and developed a new process called scalable and expeditious additive manufacturing (SEAM).

Dale R. Lombardo
Principal Engineer, Manufacturing Technology
GE Aviation
Niskayuna, New York

Dale R. Lombardo leads a diverse team of manufacturing technologists working across GE Aviation’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 Aviation 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 Aviation. 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 2018

Zhijian "ZJ" Pei, PhD, FSME
Professor, Industrial and Systems Engineering
Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas

Zhijian "ZJ" Pei, PhD, FSME, is a professor and the holder of the I. Andrew Rader Professorship II in the Wm Michael Barnes ’64 Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Pei had worked in industry for four years before joining Kansas State University. From 2012-16, he served as the program director of the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment program at NSF. In 2017, Pei served as the assistant director for research partnerships and an ASME Foundation Swanson Fellow in the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office at NIST. He has published more than 170 journal papers, more than 160 conference papers and 10 book chapters. Pei is a fellow of SME and ASME. He received NSF CAREER award (2004), NSF Director’s Award for Excellence Program Director (2015) and the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers Manufacturing & Design Division Outstanding Service Award (in 2020). SME Member Since 1993

Tony L. Schmitz, PhD, FSME
Professor
Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical
University of Tennessee Knoxville
Knoxville, Tennessee

Tony L. Schmitz, PhD, FSME, received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Temple University in 1993, his master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 1996 and his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Florida in 1999. Schmitz completed a postdoctoral appointment at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and was then employed as a mechanical engineer from 1999-2002. His professional recognitions include: 2019 SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal; 2019 UNC Board of Governors Award for Teaching; 2019 Best Presentation ASPE Annual Meeting; 2019 NAMRI | SME Outstanding Paper (NAMRC 47); 2018 51st Annual Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence; 2017 NAMRI | SME David Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award; 2016 SME College of Fellows; 2013 UNC Charlotte College of Engineering; 2013 Undergraduate Award for Teaching Excellence; 2012 Temple University Alumni Fellow; 2011 Sports Emmy Award (NBC Learn) for the Science of NFL Football Video Series; 2010 NAMRI | SME Outstanding Paper (NAMRC 38); 2009 UF MAE Teacher of the Year; 2005 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award; 2004 Journal of Tribology Best Paper Award; 2003 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award; 2003 National Science Foundation CAREER Award; 1999 Measurement Science and Technology Highly Commended Article; 1999 NIST National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associateship); 1999 Temple University Gallery of Success Inductee; 1998 Department of Energy/National Academy of Engineering Integrated Manufacturing Predoctoral Fellowship; and 1994 National Science Foundation Graduate Traineeship. Schmitz also serves as an associate editor for ASME’s Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering. SME Member Since 2004

Mike Vogler, PhD, CMfgE
Engineering Technical Steward
Caterpillar
Peoria, Illinois

Mike Vogler, PhD, CMfgE, is an Engineering Technical Steward at Caterpillar, focusing on machining technologies and processes. Since joining Caterpillar in 2006, Vogler has progressed through several roles as a research engineer, a technical team lead, manager of a manufacturing engineering and metrology support organization, and a program manager for an enterprise manufacturing and supply chain technology R&D portfolio. Prior to joining Caterpillar, he also worked for Delphi developing material removal process simulation tools in the Machining and Manufacturing Systems group. Vogler received his doctorate from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 2003. He has co-authored eight technical papers, has received two U.S. patents, has been active in SME's Peoria Chapter 31 as chair and chair of the chapter's Professional Development Committee, and received the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2010. SME Member Since 2016

Ex-Officio

Bryan D. Albrecht, EdD
Gateway Technical College (retired)

Bryan Albrecht has dedicated his career to improving the lives of those he serves through a 38-year career in education as a teacher, as a state administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Education and his 16 years as president of Gateway Technical College. Albrecht has been instrumental in raising the dignity of technical education at the local, state, national and international level through his leadership and service. Under Albrecht’s leadership, Gateway has been recognized as a model of excellence by the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Labor and the American Association of Community Colleges. He has served on over 60 boards for local, state, national and international organizations. Albrecht has served on the U.S. Department of Education, President’s Advisory Committee on Women and Technology, and has testified as a witness for the U.S. Congress and the White House on business and education best practices. In addition, he is a past president of the Wisconsin Technical College President’s Association, as well as a current vice chair of the Coalition for Career Development Center. On a local level, Albrecht has served on many local and southeast Wisconsin workforce boards. He also serves on the Kenosha Area Business Alliance and is past chair of the Racine County Economic Development Corp. and Walworth County Economic Development Alliance. Albrecht holds his bachelors, master’s and education specialist degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and a doctorate in education from the University of Minnesota. SME Member Since 2022