Meet the Board

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

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

Past President

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

Second Past President

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

Ex-Officio

Brett Peters, PhD
Dean of the College of Engineering & Applied Science
University 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.

President-Elect

Dale Lombardo
Special Processes Leader, Manufacturing Chiefs Office
GE Aerospace
New 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

Secretary

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

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. His research is in the areas of multiphysics sensing, multiresolution signal processing, AI/machine learning and wireless communication for the monitoring and control of manufacturing processes and product quality. Dr. Gao has published two books, over 450 technical papers (including over 210 journal articles), and holds 13 patents.

He is an elected Fellow of SME, ASME, IEEE, and CIRP, and a Distinguished Fellow of IIVA (The International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration). He is a recipient of several professional awards, including the 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, etc. 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/Clarivate as a “Highly Cited Researcher” in 2023 and 2014. SME Member Since 2005

Video Bio

Scientific Committee Chair

Xun Xu, PhD, FSME, FASME
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering
The University of Auckland
Auckland, 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, PhD
Professor, Manufacturing Technologies
University of Padova
Padova, 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

NAMRI | SME Directors

Wayne Cai, PhD, FASME, FSAE
Technical Fellow
General Motors
Warren, 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 ASME and SAE.

Qing (Cindy) Chang, PhD, FSME, FASME
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, 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, FSME
Associate Dean for Research and Professor
University of New Hampshire
Durham, 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

Patrick Kwon, PhD
Chair and Professor, College of Engineering
San Diego State University
San Diego, California

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 (MSM) at Michigan State University (MSU) in 1996 and transferred to Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2000 with the dissolution of MSM. He was promoted to Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MSU in 2009. He served as Associate chair for graduate studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering between 2017 and 2023. After almost 30 years at MSU, he became the chair of mechanical engineering department at San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2024.

In terms of his professional service, 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 has been serving NAMRI|SME as a board member since 2022. In research, he has made fundamental contributions in understanding tool wear mechanisms 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, Selective Laser Melting, and Electron Beam Melting and developed a new process called scalable and expeditious additive manufacturing (SEAM) while still working on machining research.

Video Bio

Arif Malik, PhD, FASME
Professor
The University of Texas at Dallas
Dallas, 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

Andy Wells, PhD, PE
Program Director
National Science Foundation
Alexandria, Virginia

Andy Wells, PhD, PE, has been a Program Director in the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advanced Manufacturing program since 2019, where he supports fundamental research to advance American manufacturing technologies and expand the workforce. He is also the co-leader of NSF's Future Manufacturing solicitation, which in its first four years provided over $135M of support for novel manufacturing approaches to overcome scientific, technological, educational, economic and social barriers that limit current production. He is an NSF representative to the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing, and to the Manufacturing USA Interagency Working Group. Prior to his present position, Dr. Wells spent over 25 years developing and building precision equipment that enables manufacturers and researchers to visualize and transform materials at the micro- and nano-scale. Previously, he was a technical program manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific and FEI Company, where he led development of scanning electron microscopes and ion-beam machining tools for semiconductor, materials science, and life science customers. Before that, he developed equipment for laser and mechanical micromachining at Electro Scientific Industries and served as an adjunct professor at Portland State University. Dr. Wells received his PhD and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Caltech, and his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth. Dr. Wells serves NAMRI|SME in his personal capacity, not as a federal employee.

Video Bio