Andy Wells Email & Phone Number

Alexandria, Va

Solicited and reviewed research and education proposals, made funding recommendations, administered awards, and built relationships with researchers and administrators from academic, industrial, and Federal agency communities. • Led team of five manufacturing program directors, coordinating proposal reviews, portfolio analysis and program planning. Managed ~$25M annual budget, verified awards contribute to broadening participation in research.• Managed competitive grant process, with a portfolio of over 100 active awards. Formed and guided merit review panels of experts from academia, industry, and national labs, covering entire range of manufacturing topics and processes, from nanotechnology and semiconductors to additive and subtractive, metals, polymers and ceramics. Recommended proposals for funding and documented justifications. Received Special Act awards each year in recognition of exemplary work in implementing the merit review and award recommendation process. Led merit review classes for new NSF program directors.• Co-chaired cross-NSF working group for Future Manufacturing, leading opportunity development, outreach, proposal review, grant decisions, and post-award communications with investigators and the public; distributing over $130M in its first four years to research cyber-, eco-, and bio-manufacturing processes and systems that are not yet viable and to develop the workforce of the future. Received Director’s Award for Superior Accomplishment for exceptional and rapid collaboration to create the solicitation, nimbly adjust to remote operations and review of proposals, and make inaugural awards.• Represented NSF on the National Science & Technology Council’s Subcommittee on Advanced Manufacturing and the Manufacturing USA Interagency Working Team. Contributed to development of the 2022-26 Strategy for American Leadership in Advanced Manufacturing and the 2022-25 Manufacturing USA Strategic Plan.

Alexandria, Virginia, United States

Collaborated with the Acting Director of the Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation Division in developing overall goals and objectives and in the planning and direction of division activities. Participated in divisional budget preparation and justification. Represented division programs and interests to senior officials in government, academia, and industry. Helped to coordinate division's scientific and engineering activities within NSF and with other agencies and organizations.• Served as NSF representative to an interagency U.S. government team formulating a strategic plan for biomanufacturing expansion, in response to a Presidential executive order. Lead writing and editing of sections on cross-cutting needs and workforce in support of a national plan to significantly increase high-value and/or high-volume biomanufacturing. Reached out to NSF program officers from across the organization who were formulating biotechnology plans in response to other sections of the executive order, ensuring that responses were coordinated and that NSF’s interests and opinions were well-represented.• Became the CMMI Conflicts Official starting in December 2022, and continue to handle all division inquiries about, and determinations of, conflicts of interest.• Oversaw search committees for new program officers, providing guidance on division needs and potential conflicts of interest, and communicating with candidates.• Reviewed and provided feedback on new solicitations, dear colleague letters, memoranda of understanding, and government publications, with a strategic focus to ensuring that division, directorate, and NSF interests are considered, commitments are understood, and new or changed activities are highlighted and accepted.

As a NAMRI board member for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, I collaborate with other directors to make policy for the institution that represents manufacturing research leadership in industry, government and academia in North America and the world.

Hillsboro, Or

Lead program execution—with responsibility for budget, staffing and schedule—from concept through release in stage gate process. Defined and tracked work of cross-functional teams in multiple locations using scaled agile framework and critical chain project management. Mentored and coached colleagues.• Selected to lead largest development program in the company, for a series of novel automated failure analysis & metrology tools for the next generation of computer chips, with a team of over 60 contributors in 3 countries. Guided engineering & marketing in technical concept evaluation and in portfolio roadmap definition & executive approval. Launched 3 major projects in 1st year, shifting some to other program managers after the planning phase.• Headed $23M project, with 40 team members/20 FTE, delivering automated TEM sample preparation capability to the semiconductor fab. Focus on customer needs and support won $40M sales to a key customer in the first year.• Championed rigorous program management practices that were new to a team, shepherding a new electron source from the research lab into regular production and integration on a leading-edge microscope.• Selected through company-wide competition to present my vision for digital science in 2030 at CSO-hosted symposium.

Hillsboro, Or

Lead project execution according to FEI’s product management process. Established/tracked schedules using critical chain project management. Coordinated activities of FEI engineers, contractors, and design/build partners, all based in multiple countries. • Took over a $3M Focused Ion Beam delivery system development project during its early design phase, with immediate measurable improvements in team focus and execution, delivering on-time to directly enable $200M sales in first year. Led escalation response to supplier quality and process issues, avoiding $30M revenue hit. Recognized for hitting COGS target.• Managed a foreign partner supplier and FEI engineers for a $70k microscope stage, leading team through root cause analysis and corrective actions to improve quality, manufacturability and on-time delivery.• Unified multinational teams challenged by strong personalities, improving understanding, cooperation, and productivity.

Eindhoven Area, Netherlands

Directed mechanical design and development of a new Transmission Electron Microscope product. Managed both an internal engineering group and several large contract design teams. Established and met schedules using critical chain project management. • Developed better communication and decision methods between designers and stakeholders, jump-starting progress of design.• Planned and tracked materials and engineering spending to stay within budget. Managed €2.5M design/build contract.• Relocated to the Netherlands to lead the team from early in the design phase through the transition to Czech manufacture.

Hillsboro, Or

Hired, coached and reviewed performance of the site’s mechanical engineers. Allocated resources to projects and ensured on-time and under-budget completion. Acted as technical lead of the mechanical engineering team on critical development projects.• Supervised a group of five engineers, several on-site contractors, and large off-site contract design/build teams. • Directed the ground-up design of a new dual-beam microscope, over $600k COGS responsibility, annual sales now >$40M.• Lead ground-up design of 5-axis stage, vibration attenuation, optical microscope, frame, skins, and overall system layout.• Granted patents for dual-beam microscope system layout to improve accuracy at lower cost and for methods of manufacturing plasma-based ion generation sources.• Served as Industrial Advisory Board Member, Portland State University Mechanical & Materials Engineering Department.

Hillsboro, Or

Lead team of in-house and contract mechanical engineers designing new electron microscope and ion beam system. • Determined acoustic enclosure and isolation system design requirements through vibration analysis and modeling.• Managed projects to develop custom parts holders for semiconductor, solar, and data storage customers. • Received patent for novel charged-particle beam positioning method to counteract image drift.

Portland, Or

Taught Senior/Masters level courses on the mechanical systems design process and on computer-aided design using solid modeling.• Created completely new courses focusing on real-world design problems, integrating several different undergraduate courses. • Taught course on mechanical systems design, concentrating on the detail design process, from engineering specification to preparation for manufacture. Created completely new course content—lectures, homework and group projects—focusing on real-world design problems.• Created all content for and taught a Senior/Masters level course on the latest software for mechanical design, covering history and future outlook of computer-aided design software, basics of mathematical representations of solids and use of I-DEAS software. • Lectured and demonstrated software usage, advised students in CAD lab, assigned and graded homework, exams and term projects. Maintained web site to supplement in-class material.

As a contractor, replaced a senior control system engineer who was on a leave of absence.• Improved accuracy and throughput of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Identified and corrected stage control issues.

Journeyed around the world for 11 months with my family, visiting 28 countries. Sold house and cars to pay for the trip.• Expanded my cultural awareness, furthered my ability to adapt quickly to different situations, and learned how to say “thank you” in over a dozen different languages.

Portland, Or

Developed machines for high-precision, high-speed laser micromachining, from requirement specifications through tested products. • Lead design of laser trimmer which mates to multiple wafer probers, including coordination with Asian prober manufacturers.• Granted two patents for ways of correcting laser beam position to compensate for machine errors.

Portland, Or

Company expert for design, analysis and testing of high-precision machinery. CAD system administrator.• Researched new technologies and methods for product improvement, including machine tool accuracy, speed and dynamics. • Administrated large I-DEAS computer-aided design and engineering system, taught new and experienced users and supervised company user group.

Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering

Dissertation: “Grammars for Mechanical Design”

M.S., Mechanical Engineering

B.A., Engineering Science

Graduated cum laude wih honors