KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — November 1, 2022 — The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation® (IACMI) today announced that Chad Duty has been named the organization’s CEO. An engineering professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), and joint faculty member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Duty will immediately begin transitioning into his new role as CEO of IACMI and fully assume the role by April 1, 2023.
“We are pleased to welcome Chad as the new CEO of IACMI,” said Maha Krishnamurthy, interim president for the University of Tennessee Research Foundation (UTRF). UTRF is the sole corporate member of Collaborative Composite Solutions Corporation, the non-profit organization which operates IACMI. “Chad’s strong background in advanced manufacturing research, technical management, strategic planning, industrial collaborations, and working with a variety of stakeholders and funding agencies makes him well positioned to lead this organization in the future.”
Duty, who will continue as a professor at UT, said he is excited for the opportunity to build upon IACMI’s accomplishments. “We have a great team and outstanding members and partners who are pursuing highly innovative approaches to advanced composites that will help to secure the future of American manufacturing,” Duty said.
Dale Brosius, IACMI’s chief commercialization officer (CCO) and interim CEO, will continue to lead the full-scale daily operations of the institute until Duty assumes the CEO role. Brosius will also continue in his roles as CCO and executive director of the IACMI Consortium.
Krishnamurthy recognized Brosius for the leadership he has provided as interim CEO, a position he has held since April of this year. “Dale has provided stability to the IACMI leadership role, playing a key part in growing and serving our consortium membership and driving innovation in manufacturing to enable a more sustainable and more competitive U.S. economy,” she said.
Duty comes to IACMI with more than 20 years of research experience in advanced manufacturing – spanning technologies in thin film processing, printed electronics, solar energy, and additive manufacturing of polymer composites. Before joining the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Biomedical Engineering at UT in 2015, Duty served as a research scientist and group leader at ORNL, beginning in 2004, and helped to establish the Department of Energy’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility at ORNL. Duty began his career as a senior aeronautical engineer at Lockheed Martin. He has a doctorate in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech and bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech.
Established by the U.S. Department of Energy in 2015, IACMI has managed more than 60 collaborative and industry-led technical projects with greater than $200 million collectively in research and development value, leading to the commercialization of at least 15 new products. In addition, through this initiative, more than $400 million has been invested in a broad system of open-access facilities for demonstration at scale in eight states. Further, IACMI has engaged more than 9,000 individuals in composites training and STEM outreach and has placed more than 100 university interns.
Through collaboration with industry, academia, and national laboratories, IACMI projects have demonstrated faster cycle times and lower costs for composite materials and structures, decreased carbon intensity, and increased the recyclability of composites.
Posted: November 1, 2022
Source: The Composites Institute
