Journals 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. Journals 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. Journals Committee Past Chair 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 Ex-Officio Melissa Orme, PhD, NAEThe Boeing Company Melissa Orme is vice president for additive manufacturing at the Boeing Company, where she leads activities across engineering, manufacturing, and new design development to differentiate Boeing products. She is also focused on developing new materials and processes and establishing the digital thread throughout the end-to-end value stream. Orme is a pioneering leader in additive manufacturing, with over three decades of work that have resulted in 15 U.S. patents and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles. Orme began her career in academia, rising to the rank of full professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Irvine. There, she established globally recognized research laboratories in what is now known as additive manufacturing. She later transitioned into leadership roles in high-tech startups, serving as chief technical officer of Morf3D, a company specializing in additive manufacturing for aerospace and defense. Orme was then recruited by Boeing to lead additive manufacturing across all business units. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and was inducted into the TCT Hall of Fame for 3D printing. Orme also received the SME Eli Whitney International Award for Productivity in 2024. SME Member Since 2023 Editor-in-Chief Manufacturing Letters Laine Mears, PhD, FSME, FASME, CMfgE, PEProfessor and ChairClemson University International Center for Automotive ResearchGreenville, South Carolina Laine Mears is the BMW SmartState Endowed Chair of Automotive Manufacturing, Professor and founding faculty member in the Automotive Engineering department at Clemson University. He teaches and conducts research in manufacturing quality estimation, Intelligent Machining Systems, manufacturing process design and control, and manufacturing equipment diagnostics, at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. Current efforts are in expanding the Multimaterial Joining Lab and growing a new Center of Automotive Assembly. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles, and is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, SAE Ralph Teetor Educational Award, the South Carolina Governor’s Young Researcher Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, and the IMECHE George Stephenson Gold Medal and Thatcher Bros. Prize. He currently directs the Clemson Vehicle Assembly Center and the NSF THINKER Research Traineeship Program. In addition to academic experience, Dr. Mears has over 10 years in industry, holding positions with Hitachi Automotive and SKF Bearings as both Manufacturing Engineer and Engineering Manager in high-volume precision manufacturing environments. Applicable work in industry includes leading quality implementation teams for QS-9000 and IATF-16949 quality systems, power optimization of hard machining processes, and startup of a new bulk deformation rolling process. Dr. Mears has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech (1993) and M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech. He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and SME, and a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality. He is a Certified Manufacturing Engineer, ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), BMW Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and licensed Professional Engineer. Editor-in-Chief Journal of Manufacturing Processes Shiv Kapoor, PhD, FSMEProfessor and DirectorUniversity of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignUrbana, Illinois Shiv G. Kapoor is Professor and Grayce Wicall Gauthier Chair and Director of the Center for Machine Tool Systems Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He holds a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof. Kapoor has sustained a relevant and well-supported research program in the areas of manufacturing process modeling and process automation. The main goal has been to develop science-based understanding of the processes for the purpose of increasing productivity and improving quality. For the past 10 years, he and colleagues at UIUC and Northwestern University have been engaged in laying the foundation of a new manufacturing paradigm related to micro/meso-scale mechanical manufacturing. The main idea is the creation of miniaturized manufacturing equipment and processes that are integrated into autonomous “microfactories” and promote the concept of mass customization through distributed manufacturing (DM). Prof. Kapoor’s research is developing a better scientific understanding of emerging nano- and micro-scale manufacturing processes to bridge the gap between the laboratory technologies and their industrial applications. Prof. Kapoor is a Fellow of SME and ASME and a senior member of IIE. He is a past president of NAMRI/SME (North American Manufacturing Research Institution of SME), past technical editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering (ASME) and currently serves as editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Processes (SME). He received the SME S.M. Wu Research Implementation Award in 2010, the ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award (for best research paper) in 1992, 1997 and 2008, the SME Education Award in 2005 and the ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award in 2003. Editor-in-Chief Journal of Manufacturing Systems Lihui Wang, PhD, FSME, FASME, PEProfessor and Chair of Sustainable ManufacturingKTH Royal Institute of TechnologyStockholm, Sweden Lihui Wang is a Professor and Chair of Sustainable Manufacturing at KTH, Sweden. He is also the Director of Centre of Excellence in Production Research (XPRES) - one of the five national strategic research centres at KTH. He has served as the President (2020-2021) of North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI) of Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and the Chairman (2018-2020) of Swedish Production Academy. In 2020, he was elected one of the 20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing by Society of Manufacturing Engineers. He is the Editor-in-Chief of International Journal of Manufacturing Research, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Manufacturing Systems, Editor-in-Chief of Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Editor of Journal of Intelligent Manufacturing (2007-2019), Associate Editor of International Journal of Production Research, and an Editorial Board Member of other 17 international journals. He is also a Fellow of The Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), a Fellow of The International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), a Fellow of International Academy of Engineering and Technology (AET), a Fellow of SME, a Fellow of ASME, and a registered Professional Engineer in Canada. Committee Members Martin Byung-Guk Jun, PhDProfessor, School of Mechanical EngineeringPurdue UniversityWest Lafayette, Indiana Dr. Martin Jun is a Professor of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA. He is also the Director of the Center of Operation and Research for Industry Advancement (CORIA) and a Co-Director of the Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center (SMIC) at Purdue. He received the BSc and MASc degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada in 1998 and 2000, respectively. He then received his PhD degree in 2005 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering. His main research focus is on advanced multi-scale and smart manufacturing processes and technologies for various applications. His sound-based smart machine monitoring technology led to a start-up company on smart sensing. He has authored over 180 peer-reviewed journal publications. He is an ASME fellow and Area Editor of Journal of Manufacturing Processes. He is also the recipient of the 2011 SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, 2012 Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers I.W. Smith Award for Outstanding Achievements, 2015 Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers Damwoo Award, and 2023 Italian Machine Tool Technology Award. He has also been recognized as 20 most influential academics and 25 leaders transforming manufacturing in the Smart Manufacturing magazine. He was selected as one of the Most Impactful Faculty Inventors in 2020 and 2023 at Purdue. In addition, he is a recipient of the MOTIE Minister Award for international collaboration in industrial technology in 2023. Livan Fratini, PhD Chair and Professor, Department of EngineeringUniversity of PalermoPalermo, Italy Prof. Livan Fratini graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering in 1993 and took his PhD in Production Engineering at University of Palermo in Italy in 1997. Currently he is a full professor of Manufacturing at the University of Palermo. He has been Vice-Rector for Research and Third Mission from 2018 to 2021. Since November 2024 he has been Director of the Department of Engineering. The scientific activity has been mainly focused on the development of numerical models for the analysis of the plastic behavior of metals during forming processes. Most recently he has been working on solid bonding processes. He has been coordinating or involved in several national and international research projects. He is co-author of over 350 papers on international scientific journals or on the proceedings of national and international conferences (ORCID: 0000-0002-1059-2850; Scopus Author Id. 56274137600). Prof. Fratini was awarded the F.W. Taylor Medal by the CIRP (2007). He has been Vice-President of AITEM (Italian Association of Manufacturing) in 2013-2017; he is a Fellow of CIRP (The International Academy for Production Engineering). He has been President of NAMRI|SME for 2022-23; he has been President of ESAFORM (European Scientific Association for Material Forming) from 2020 to 2024. SME Member Since 2014 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 Hong-Chao Zhang, PhD, FSMEProfessor EmeritusTexas Tech UniversityLeander, Texas Dr. Hong-Chao Zhang is E. L. Derr Endowment Professor Emeritus of the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering (IMSE) at Texas Tech University (TTU). He served as a professor from 1990 to 2022. He also served as interim chair at the department from 2012 to 2017. He was elected as Fellow of ASME in 2008, Fellow of CIRP in 2010 and Fellow of SME in 2016. At TTU, Dr. Zhang founded Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory (AML), where he and his research group are conducting research on the development of new innovative technologies, processes and methods to improve products’ sustainability, new material processing and lifecycle assessment, environmentally benign end-of-life (EOL) strategies, and development of tools to assess and enhance sustainable manufacturing practices. His research interests lie in Remanufacturing for Mechanical Equipment, Environmentally Benign Product Design and Manufacturing, Manufacturing Systems and Material Processing, Manufacturing Enterprise Systems, Reverse Manufacturing and Reverse Logistics, Product and Process Modeling, Automated Tolerancing Analysis and Synthesis, and Intelligent Manufacturing. Dr. Zhang has more than 300 publications, including two research reference books, three conference proceedings (editorial work), seven book chapters, over 180 referred journal papers, and 156 referred conference papers. His research results are shared by institutions and industry companies, such as Hewlett Packard, Motorola, Intel, Dell Computer, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, and others. Dr. Zhang is a well-recognized scholar and educator in advanced manufacturing. Dr. Zhang has made significant contributions to the profession of advanced manufacturing engineering in the last more than 30 years. Dr. Zhang is internationally recognized for his scientific contribution in Sustainable Manufacturing. He is recognized not only in the area of sustainable manufacturing, but also in many other advanced manufacturing research areas. He has served as a member of many national and international committees. Currently, Dr. Zhang serves as the edit-in-chief of the International Journal of Green Manufacturing Open (GMO) published by OAE group. He has been invited as associate editor in three international journals and serves as advisory board member in the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, IJAMT published by Springer London, UK, and editorial board member for the Robotics and Computer Integrated Manufacturing, published by Pergamon, London, UK and for the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing published by Inderscience Publishers. Dr. Zhang was also the guest editor for Special Issue on Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing for Engineering Design and Automation, Vol. 4, 1997, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York. Meanwhile. He has raised more than $18 million in total research funds from a variety of the Federal governmental and states governmental funding agencies, major industrial companies, small business industrial companies, international collaborative projects and so on so forth. The funding organizations include NSF, DOE, NIST, Texas ATP, SME, nonprofit organizations and profitable industrial firms, etc. Yuming Zhang, PhDProfessor, Electrical EngineeringUniversity of KentuckyLexington, Kentucky YuMing Zhang, James R. Boyd Professor in Electrical Engineering, has been with the University of Kentucky, USA since 1991 conducting welding research. He received BS, MS, and PhD degrees all from Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. His research has brought him 12 US patents, 1 European patent, over 200 journal publications, and recognition including University Research Professor, Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, and Fellow of SME, IEEE, AWS, ASME, AAIA, and AIIA. He is also the Major Professor for 8 IIW (International Institute of Welding) Granjon winners and recipient of awards from AWS, SME, IEEE, IFAC and The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (United Kingdom). He has been an area editor for the Journal of Manufacturing Processes since 2021.
