Chair Nick Gianaris, PhD, PEPrincipal Technical ConsultantNexight Group Nick Gianaris presently consults and works on energy efficient materials and manufacturing technologies. At Nexight Group, Dr. Gianaris focuses on building capabilities in materials science and engineering to complement Nexight’s existing expertise in strategic planning and analysis, roadmapping, facilitation, partnership development, and communications. In doing so, he expands Nexight’s technical expertise and brings new insight to the problems our clients are faced with solving. He led the engineering team at Hexagon Purus NA, and was Global Director of Aerospace and Defense Strategy for Air Liquide Advanced Technologies. Nick’s expertise includes materials and processes that range from lightweight and recyclable materials, energy efficiency, high temperature / refractory materials, critical materials, failure analysis, multifunctional materials, additive / 3-D printing, quality methods and systems, vehicle system engineering, and on-board gas generation. Gianaris received his BS degree in Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science from Carnegie Mellon U., & his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Johns Hopkins U. After 4 years at Westinghouse’s Echoram Technology and Northrop Aircraft, he cofounded an entrepreneurial nondestructive evaluation company in 1989. He joined Boeing's materials and processes quality engineering in 1992 to manage the polymer composites and metals labs, and subsequently formed the lightweight advanced chassis technology group at Ford Motor Co. / Visteon Corp. in 1998. Gianaris joined General Dynamics Land Systems in 2004, and then became Executive Director of the Composite Vehicle Research Center (CVRC) at Michigan State U. in 2011. After CVRC was awarded the Michigan Automotive Composites Center for IACMI, Gianaris joined Thermacore as Vice President and General Manager. After a successful acquisition, he joined ExOne in 2018 as Manager of R&D for 3-D Metal Printing. He joined Air Liquide in 2018 to develop the global aerospace and defense strategy for airborne fuel tank inerting and life support technologies. At Hexagon Purus, he led the engineering of hydrogen storage, and presently works at Nexight Group consulting on manufacturing energy efficient technologies. Gianaris was on faculty at Michigan State U., Wayne State U., Schoolcraft College, Widener U., and Delaware County Community College. Gianaris served as advisory committee member at Wayne State U., Schoolcraft College, and Johns Hopkins U. He is credited with 11 issued US and German Patents for pioneering work in various areas of materials design, characterization, and processing. His awards include Fellow of ASM, US Senate Congressional Recognition Award (Sen. Stabenow), Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, Alpha Sigma Mu Metallurgical Honors Society, GWC Whiting Fellowship, and Who’s Who recognitions. Gianaris has over 25 publications to his credit, served as SAMPE Global President, served as technical and symposium chairs for national conferences, and an avid volunteer on professional societies, non-profit, and technical boards including National Research Council; Michigan 21st Century Job Fund High Technology; ABET; NCEES; and DOE ARPA-E Review Panels. He is a Professional Engineer and holds two ASNT certifications. Nick served on the Governor’s Early Learning Investment Commission, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy Board, member of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and a Leadership Pittsburgh XXXII graduate. Vice Chair Mick MaherPresidentMaher & Associates Michael "Mick" Maher is the president and co-founder of Maher & Associates LLC, which he co-founded in September 2016 after five years as a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Prior to this, Maher was chief of the Composite and Hybrid Materials Branch and Materials Applications Branch at the Army Research Laboratory. He has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Loyola University Maryland and attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. Past Chair John Russell, D.Sc., FSMEVice PresidentFives, Inc. John Russell, D.Sc., FSME is vice president of business development for defense at Fives, Inc. John identifies opportunities and builds relationships across the defense industrial base for factory equipment needs such as fiber placement, material removal, grinding, gantries, and associated services. He also develops partnerships with universities, consortia, and federal research laboratories to advance the state of the art in manufacturing equipment to bring value to the DoD. Prior to Fives, John retired after a 34-year career at the Air Force Research Laboratory where he held a variety of leadership roles. As chief of the Structures Technology Branch, he led the strategy development and execution of R&D programs in structural design for future military aircraft. Prior to that while in the Manufacturing and Industrial Technologies Division, he advised the division chief on all matters related to the technical strategy for the $100M/yr program. In addition, he was the chairman of the DoD's Joint Defense Manufacturing Technology Panel which coordinates manufacturing technology requirements and strategies across the military services and agencies. Prior to those roles, he was the program panager of the Defense Wide Manufacturing Science and Technology Program on behalf of the office of the secretary of defense. He led planning and execution of manufacturing technology R&D programs to mature cross-cutting defense manufacturing needs. John is a Fellow of SME and The Air Force Research Laboratory. He's a member of SME's AeroDef Conference Executive Committee and led the relaunch of SME's Composites Technical Community. John has a Doctor of Science degree from Washington University in St. Louis. SME Member Since 2017 Education Chair Srikanth Pilla, PhDProfessor and DirectorUniversity of Delaware Dr. Srikanth Pilla is a Professor and Director of the Center for Composite Materials at the University of Delaware (UD-CCM) with faculty appointments in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering. He is also the Founding Director of ‘AIM for Composites,’ a Department of Energy-funded Energy Frontier Research Center. Pilla also co-directs IDeAS Composites, an NSF National Research Traineeship program focused on training next-generation composite leaders. Pilla earned his doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with postdoctoral training from Stanford University. Before joining UD-CCM, Pilla held the ExxonMobil Employees Chair in Engineering at Clemson University and was the founding director of the Clemson Composites Center. Pilla also worked as an Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Pilla’s research interests lie in the fundamentals and applications of sustainable and lightweight functional materials and manufacturing. He has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed archival publications. His research is supported by NSF, DOE, USDA, DOD, and NASA, as well as several foundations and industries, including automotive OEMs and their suppliers. Pilla is a fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers and is the recipient of the 2021 Green Chemistry Challenge award from the Environmental Protection Agency and the 2022 Team award from the Department of Energy Vehicle Technologies Office. Awards Chair Randy KappesserStrategy and Initiatives LeaderGE Aerospace
