Board of Directors - Voting member for Virginia Tech to Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing - partnership between Rolls Royce, Airbus, Alcoa, Siemens, Newport News Shipbuilding, Sandvik, Canon, Areojet, Chromalloy, NASA, Virginia Tech, UVA, VSU, ODU, VCU, the State of Virginia and manu others. The overarching focus is in the area of advanced manufacturing.

I received BS and MS degrees in Ceramic Engineering from Ohio State University in 1985 and 1987, respectively, and a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering Science from Virginia Tech. in 1994. I am a Professor in the Materials Science and Engineering Department and the Rolls Royce Commonwealth Director of Surface Engineering for the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, a joint partnership between Rolls Royce, Airbus, Alcoa, Canon, Siemens, Newport News Shipbuilding, Sanvik, Aerojet, Chromalloy, the State of Virginia, Virginia Tech, UVA and Virginia State University among others. I am also the Associate Director for the Center for Photonics Technology, in the Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech. My industrial experience includes positions at Owens Illinois, Corning, Selee, and Porvair Advanced Materials in various industrial positions from process engineer to member of the Board of Directors. I have authored or co-authored over 200 technical papers, am a member of the Editorial Board of the 9 International Journals including of Lean Six Sigma, Nanomedicine and Nanosurgery, Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology, Nanotechnology and Energy, and Sensors journals, have 16 patents issued (over 40 disclosures) and 4 patents pending. I have Chaired or co-Chaired more than 20 international conferences, and served on the organizing committee for more than 30 conferences. I was named a Fellow of SPIE in 2015; received the Faculty Fellow award in 2007; Virginia Tech Outstanding Assistant Professor Award in 2005 and the R&D 100 Award in 2004 (for a fiber optic sensor suite – named one of the top 100 products developed in the world). I have been a PI or co-PI on over $10 million in funded research since joining Virginia Tech.

Served on Board of Directors for this company whose overall focus has been the development of optical fiber sensor systems for aerospace, power generation, oil and gas and other industrial markets.