Dr. Huijuan Dai works as Program Manager for the Advanced Materials & Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) Next Generation Materials and Process subprogram. Her portfolio includes smart manufacturing, cyber security for manufacturing, additive manufacturing, composites, highly conductive materials, and materials for harsh service conditions.

Before joining DOE, Huijuan spent more than 15 years working on industry research and technology development across aerospace, space, energy, and oil and gas industries. She also has more than 10 years of experience in program and team management, leading multidisciplinary teams from idea generation to new technology introduction. Previously, Huijuan was the Additive Program Manager and then Senior Engineering Manager at GE Renewable Energy. She also has served as a Lead Research Engineer at GE Global Research.

Huijuan graduated with B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Beijing Institute of Technology, China and earned her PhD in Materials Science from the University of Leicester, UK. She is also currently an MBA candidate at the University of South Carolina. 

Biography Forthcoming.

Dr. Sudarsan Rachuri is a Technology Manager in the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office. He supports the office as the Federal Program Manager for the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovations Institute (CESMII) and the Cybersecurity Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CyMANII).

Prior to joining DOE, he was the program manager at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and also a research professor at George Washington University and worked on Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided Engineering software.

Dr. Rachuri is serving as editor-in-chief of ASTM International’s journal, Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing Systems. Dr. Rachuri is also a founding member and served as the vice-chair of the ASTM subcommittee on sustainable manufacturing. He also serves on ASTM International's Smart Manufacturing Advisory Committee. Dr. Rachuri is the founding member and the Chair of the standards committee on the American Society of Mechanical Engineers V&V 50 Verification and Validation of Computational Modeling for Advanced Manufacturing.

Dr. Rachuri received the 2016 ASTM International President’s Leadership Award, won first prize in the 2017 World Standards Day (WSD) Paper Competition, awarded by The Society for Standards Professionals, and has been honored with the Excellence in Research Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Computers and Information in Engineering (CIE) Division. Dr. Rachuri is leading the effort in developing a national plan for smart manufacturing with the National Academies.

Sudarsan graduated with BS in Mathematics, MS in Applied Mathematics (Anna University, India), MS (Aerospace Engineering), and Ph.D. (Computer Science and Automation) from Indian Institute of Science.

Biography Forthcoming.

Dr. Lalena works as a Technology Manager for the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) Next Generation Materials and Process (NGMP) subprogram. His portfolio includes materials for harsh environments and service conditions. Prior to this, Dr. Lalena worked as a Technology Manager for the Industrial Efficiency and Decarbonization Office (IEDO) Energy and Emissions Intensive Industries (EEII) subprogram with a focus on iron & steelmaking and cement & concrete. He supported the predecessor Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) as a contractor for power electronics and critical materials since 2016, becoming a Technology Manager in 2020.

Before joining DOE, Dr. Lalena held various roles in the advanced materials and manufacturing sector, particularly in semiconductor and electronic materials fabrication. He has worked as an R&D scientist and process engineer at Honeywell, Texas Instruments, REC Silicon, and Ferro Corporation. He is the lead author of two Wiley & Sons textbooks, Principles of Inorganic Materials Design, now in its third edition (2020), and Inorganic Materials Synthesis and Fabrication (2008). Dr. Lalena’s research interests are in the area of structure/property/processing correlation across multiple length scales.

Dr. Lalena has a B.S. in Chemistry from Louisiana State University - Shreveport and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Inorganic Materials Chemistry from the University of New Orleans.

Alaa Elwany works as a Federal Fellow for the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). In this role, Alaa is responsible for supporting AMMTO’s leadership and staff in developing the office’s vision and operational strategy, in addition to performing the same function for AMMTO’s consortium hosted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility. He also contributes to managing and administering funding opportunity announcements and projects, with emphasis on projects under the Next Generation Materials and Processes program.

As an AMMTO Fellow, Alaa is currently on detail from Texas A&M University where he serves as an associate professor and Faculty Fellow at the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. His research focus is in advanced manufacturing and smart manufacturing technologies, with emphasis on modeling, analysis, and control in metal additive manufacturing processes. He has more than 100 peer reviewed journal and conference publications and has been recognized with research and teaching awards from leading organizations including National Science Foundation (NSF), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He also previously served as Federal Fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) prior to joining AMMTO. 

Alaa Elwany has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Production Engineering from Alexandria University, Egypt, and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Steven Shooter is a Fellow of Science and Technology Policy in the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office at the Department of Energy. In this role he supports the Clean Energy Smart Manufacturing Innovation Institute (CESMII), the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and Education and Workforce Development initiatives. He is an expert in robotics and automation, smart manufacturing, additive manufacturing and system interoperability. He has been a professor of Mechanical Engineering since 1992 and holds a current appointment at The George Washington University. He has insights into many government agencies having received funding  or worked with the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, NASA, the Office of Naval Research, US Army ARDEC, DARPA and the Economic Development Agency, among others. He is a registered Professional Engineer.

He holds a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Mechanical Engineering.

Jesse Geiger is the program manager for Energetics Inc.'s work with the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO), helping to coordinate technical analysis for AMMTO. In this role, Jesse is responsible for coordinating the support for various AMMTO programs as well as directly supporting Circular Economy and Smart Manufacturing. Prior to this, Jesse worked as an engineer with the National Renewable Energy Lab supporting the Bio-Energy Technology Office. His area of expertise includes program management, renewable energy technologies, and circular economy.

Before joining AMMTO, Jesse owned a solar company in Gulu, Uganda providing energy and light access. The company designed off-grid and grid connected systems as well as established last mile distribution of small-scale solar products to remote areas.  

Jesse has a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering and a Master of Science in Advanced Energy Systems from the Colorado School of Mines as well as a Professional Engineering License in CO.

Nesredin (Nes) Kedir, Ph.D., works as a consulting Engineer/Scientist for Energetics. In this role, Nes provides technical and analytical insights on a variety of projects. His primary focus is on enabling the thermal conductivity side for the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technology Office’s (AMMTO) Conductivity-Enhanced Materials for Affordable, Breakthrough, Leapfrog Electric and Thermal Applications (CABLE) initiative.

His area of expertise includes materials development for thermal management and harsh environment applications including gas turbines and rockets. In addition, he holds expertise in materials characterization, failure analysis, fracture mechanics, nondestructive evaluation, and mechanical testing (quasi-static and dynamic). 

Before joining Energetics, Nes worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) in Aberdeen, MD on materials development for thermal protection systems. Before receiving his fellowship, Nes was employed by Rolls-Royce HTC (High-Temperature Composites), where he worked as a materials and process engineer in the company’s developmental/manufacturing pilot facility. He has authored several peer reviewed journals covering topics such as in-situ dynamic testing, ballistic testing of armor materials, and thermomechanical characterization of ceramic matrix composites. 

Nes has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland at College Park in Materials Science and Engineering and a Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from Purdue University.