2024 SME College of Fellows

Since 1986, the SME College of Fellows has honored those members who have made outstanding contributions to the social, technological and educational aspects of the manufacturing profession. These nine industry professionals have earned this highly prestigious honor through 20 years or more of dedication and service to manufacturing.

Eric Barnes, FSME
Northrop Grumman Fellow for Advanced Manufacturing
Northrop Grumman Aerospace and Defense
Los Angeles

Eric Barnes, a corporate fellow for advanced manufacturing and technology, has more than 39 years of expertise in aerospace and defense manufacturing, materials, processes and structures, with the last 33 years dedicated to Northrop Grumman. During his tenure, Barnes has amassed 29 years of advanced development experience, effectively overseeing numerous internal and contractual R&D programs. He has been instrumental in the development and transition of manufacturing technologies, while also managing the sector materials research and materials and processes engineering organizations. Barnes’ responsibilities encompass manufacturing technology strategy and contributions to over 20 Northrop Grumman aerospace platforms. Notably, he has spearheaded the development and implementation of five additive manufacturing technologies for aerospace vehicles and introduced composites, coatings and robotics technologies into programs. Recognized as a proficient technical leader and strategist, Barnes possesses a comprehensive background spanning all life cycle phases of defense programs, from business capture to sustainment. His adeptness in technology transition has resulted in significant cost reductions across multiple air vehicle programs and facilitated rate acceleration on others, earning him multiple defense manufacturing technology awards. With 12 patents granted, Barnes has also received NGC and DoD Innovation awards, as well as the NGC 2019 Invention of the Year accolade. Actively engaged in various engineering societies, consortium/Institute steering committees and STEM initiatives, he holds a master’s degree in materials science and engineering from UCLA and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from CSULB. SME Member Since 2014

Qing “Cindy” Chang, PhD, FSME
Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia 

Qing “Cindy” Chang is a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia. She earned her doctoral degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan. Chang’s research interests include math-based and data-enabled modeling to optimize dynamic manufacturing systems; improving manufacturing efficiency and sustainability through adaptive control and machine learning-based methods; and driving innovation in human-robot collaborations within the manufacturing domain. The impact of her research extends beyond academic realms, with tangible applications in real-world production systems, yielding substantial cost savings. Chang is an elected fellow of ASME and SME and a senior member of IEEE. She has been elected to the board of directors of SME’s North American Manufacturing Research Institution and has assumed leadership and editorial positions for numerous journals and conferences affiliated with ASME, IEEE and SME. Chang has been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award, was named one of the "20 Most Influential Professors in Smart Manufacturing" by SME in 2020; honored with three GM Boss Kettering Awards, GM’s highest corporate award for innovation; and three GM R&D Charles L. McCuen Special Achievement Awards. SME Member Since 2023 

Ryan Dehoff, PhD, FSME
Director of Manufacturing Demonstration Facility
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Ryan Dehoff serves as the director of the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and holds the role of technical area lead for advanced manufacturing within the Nuclear Energy AMMT Program. Dehoff’s research focuses on elucidating correlations between process conditions of advanced manufacturing, materials, microstructure and mechanical performance. He specializes in additive manufacturing, commonly referred to as 3D printing, particularly emphasizing metals and alloys. His expertise extends to various additive manufacturing technologies, such as electron beam and laser powder bed, large-scale directed energy deposition technology and solid-state-based AM processes. Dehoff is working to integrate the digital thread into manufacturing for the certification and qualification of advanced manufactured components. His contributions at ORNL have significantly advanced additive manufacturing, especially in metal additive manufacturing, through the development of innovative techniques enhancing the properties, performance and scalability of printed materials. Dehoff’s research has yielded numerous publications in esteemed scientific journals and garnered several awards, including the prestigious R&D 100 Award. SME Member Since 2018

Gregory A. Harris, PhD, FSME, PE
Department Chair Professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Auburn University
Auburn, Alabama

Greg Harris is the Joe W. Forehand/Accenture distinguished professor and department chair of Industrial & Systems Engineering at Auburn University. He teaches courses in advanced manufacturing and systems engineering and serves as director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems. Before joining Auburn's ISE Faculty, Harris worked with the U.S. Army, Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, and served as the founding government program manager for the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (now MxD), a presidential initiative aimed at increasing innovation and competitiveness in U.S. manufacturing. Harris previously directed the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Center at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. His research spans advanced manufacturing systems, model-based enterprise, Industry 4.0/smart manufacturing, continuous improvement, sustainability and supply networks. With over 40 years of experience in roles such as industrial engineer, quality engineer, operations manager, plant manager, director of operations and consultant in manufacturing and supply chain, Harris brings a wealth of expertise. He earned his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Auburn University, an MBA from St. Edwards University and his doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Harris is a registered professional engineer and a Fellow of SME. SME Member Since 2017

Xiaochun Li, PhD, FSME
Raytheon Endowed Chair in Manufacturing
University of California
Los Angeles

Xiaochun Li holds the Raytheon endowed chair in manufacturing within the departments of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, as well as Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles. Earning a doctorate from Stanford University in 2001, Li stands as a pioneer and leading authority in fundamental research, scalable manufacturing and the successful commercialization of nanotechnology-enabled solidification processes, encompassing casting, welding and additive manufacturing. His groundbreaking contributions extend to structurally embedded micro/nano sensors for smart manufacturing systems. Currently, Li directs UCLA's Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center within the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute. His distinguished career has garnered him prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award in 2002, the 2003 SME Jiri Tlusty Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, the Howard F. Taylor Award from the American Foundry Society in 2008 and the ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award in 2022. Li holds fellow status with the National Academy of Inventors since 2021, with ASME since 2014 and with the International Society for Nanomanufacturing since 2014. Before joining UCLA, he served as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2001-13, concurrently directing the Nano-Engineered Materials Processing Center from 2009-13. SME Member Since 2004

Ajay P. “AJ” Malshe, PhD, FSME
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Purdue University
West Lafayette, Indiana

AJ Malshe is an R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson distinguished professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. His leadership roles at Purdue include being a President’s Fellow and the inaugural director of the Materials and Manufacturing Research Laboratories. He has 40 years of collective professional experience in nanomanufacturing industries as a founder, board member and officer as well as academia. Malshe has gained national and international recognition in advanced manufacturing, bio-inspired design, functional multimaterials, system integration and productization. Application areas of his contributions include in-space servicing, assembly and manufacturing, biomanufacturing for foods, packaging of microelectronics and nanomanufacturing for machines. Malshe has trained more than 1,400 students and mentored numerous engineers for leadership. He has published more than 225 papers and has received more than 28 patents resulting in more than 20 award-winning nanomanufactured products applied by leading corporations in energy, defense and aerospace, transportation, EVs and other critical industrial sectors. Malshe has received over 45 prestigious international honors for scientific discoveries, engineering breakthroughs and product innovations. In 2018, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering “for innovations in nanomanufacturing with impact in multiple industry sectors,” the highest award an engineer can receive. SME Member Since 2006

Brigid Mullany, PhD, FSME
Associate Dean for Research
Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Charlotte, North Carolina

Brigid Mullany, a professor in Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science, serves as the associate dean for research for the William States Lee College of Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Mullany earned her bachelor’s degree and doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University College Dublin in Ireland. Following her education, Mullany held a two-year EU Marie Curie postdoctoral research position at Carl Zeiss in Germany. In 2004, she joined the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, focusing on additive manufacturing (metal and ceramic) and surface finishing for optical applications, as well as robust multiclass surface discrimination machine learning frameworks. Mullany was honored with the SME Kuo K. Wang Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2007 and the NSF CAREER Award in 2008. She has served as the past president for SME’s North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI | SME), a fellow of CIRP (the International Academy of Production Engineering) and a past chair of CIRP’s Scientific Technical Committee on Surfaces. From January 2017 to November 2019, Mullany served as a program director in the Advanced Manufacturing program at the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Virgina. SME Member Since 2018

Ram D. Sriram, PhD, FSME
Chief of the Software and System Division
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, Maryland

Ram Sriram is the chief of the Software and Systems Division, Information Technology Laboratory, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He previously led the Design and Process Group in the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. Before joining NIST, Sriram served on the engineering faculty (1986-94) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and led the MIT-DICE Project. Sriram’s research interests include digital manufacturing, health IT and software engineering. He has authored or co-authored nearly 300 publications, including books and videos. Sriram has received numerous awards, including the NSF’s Presidential Young Investigator Award (1989), the ASME Design Automation Award (2011), the ASME CIE Distinguished Service Award (2014), the Washington Academy of Sciences’ Distinguished Career in Engineering Sciences Award (2015), the ASME CIE Division’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2016), the CMU CEE Lt. Col. Christopher Raible Distinguished Public Service Award (2018), the IIT Madras Distinguished Alumni Award (2021) and the IEEE Reliability Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2023). He is a Fellow of AAIA, ACM, AIBME, ASME, AAAS, IEEE, IET, INCOSE, SMA, SME, WAS and an honorary member of IISE. Sriram holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from the Indian Institutes of Technology, and a master’s degree and doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University. SME Member Since 2022

Ryan Wicker, PhD, FSME, PE
Director & Founder of the W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation
Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh Murchison Chair I
University of Texas
El Paso, El Paso, Texas

Ryan Wicker holds the endowed Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh Murchison Chair I professorship at the University of Texas at El Paso. He also serves as the director and founder of UTEP’s W.M. Keck Center for 3D Innovation and America Makes Satellite Center. Additionally, Wicker is the editor-in-chief and founding editor of “Additive Manufacturing,” an Elsevier journal. He earned mechanical engineering degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (Bachelor of Science in 1987) and Stanford University (masters in 1991 and doctorate in 1995). Wicker worked at General Dynamics from 1987-89 and has dedicated his entire academic career to UTEP since 1994. Wicker's proudest moments at UTEP are marked by his students' successes, including the completion of 59 graduate students; the employment and impact of over 500 student researchers (mostly undergraduates) through meaningful research experiences; the publication of hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and patents with student authors and inventors; and the subsequent achievements of his students who have become leaders in industry, government and academia post-UTEP. SME Member Since 2004