Biographical Sketches of Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board Members and Staff
R. BYRON PIPES, Chair, NAE, has been the John Leighton Bray Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Purdue University since 2004. He is a member of the Royal Society of Engineering Sciences of Sweden (1995). Composite materials have been the focus of his scholarship for the past 44 years. He has developed analytical models and carried out experiments with the objective of developing a fundamental understanding of the design, durability, and manufacture of these materials systems and structures. He served as Goodyear Endowed Professor of Polymer Engineering at the University of Akron from 2001 to 2004. He was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the College of William and Mary during 1999-2001, where he pursued research in carbon nanotechnology at the NASA Langley Research Center. He served as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1993 to 1998. Dr. Pipes was provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Delaware from 1991 to 1993 and served as dean of the College of Engineering and director of the Center for Composite Materials in 1977-1991 at the same institution. He was appointed Robert L. Spencer Professor of Engineering in 1986 in recognition of his outstanding scholarship in the field of polymer composite materials ranging over the subject areas of advanced manufacturing science, durability, design, and characterization. Dr. Pipes received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and the M.S.E. from Princeton University. He is the recipient of the Gustus L. Larson Award of Pi Tau Sigma and the Chaire Francqui, Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, in Belgium. He is a fellow of ASC, ASME, and SAMPE.
KENNETH R. BOFF is principal scientist with Socio-Technical Sciences. From 2007 to 2012, he served as principal scientist with the Tennenbaum Institute at the Georgia Institute of Technology and as scientific advisor to the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development (Tokyo). From 1997 to 2007, he served as the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory chief scientist for human effectiveness. In this position was responsible for the technical direction of a multidisciplinary R&D portfolio encompassing individual, organizational, and sociocultural behavior and modeling, training, protection, and the bio- and human engineering of complex systems. He is best known for his work on understanding and remediating problems in the transition of research to applications in the design, acquisition, and deployment of systems and the value-centered management of R&D organizations. Holder of a patent for rapid communication display technology, Dr. Boff has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and technical papers and is coeditor of Organizational Simulation (2005) and System Design (1987); he is also senior editor of the two-volume Handbook of Perception and Human Performance (1986) and the four-volume Engineering Data Compendium: Human Perception and Performance (1988). He actively consults and provides technical liaison with government agencies, international working groups, universities, and professional societies. He has organized and facilitated numerous technical workshops in the United States, Europe, and the Pacific Rim focused on contemporary issues in complex sociotechnical systems. He is a fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society and the International Ergonomics Association.
EPHRAHIM GARCIA is a professor and director of graduate studies for the field of aerospace in the
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University. His area of expertise is dynamics and controls, especially sensors and actuators involving smart materials with applications to robotics, energy harvesting, and bioinspired machines. Dr. Garcia served as a program manager in the Defense Sciences Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1998 to 2002. His programs involved the development of new types of actuation systems utilizing smart material transducers, system-level demonstrations of smart structures applied to defense platforms, morphing aircraft systems, and the development of exoskeletons for human performance augmentation. From 1991 to 1998, Dr. Garcia was an assistant and then associate professor of mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University, where he was director of the Center for Intelligent Mechatronics and the Smart Structures Laboratory. In this capacity he directed research in the areas of smart structures, control-structure interaction, and bioinspired robotics. From 1991 to 1997, he owned and operated Garman Systems, Inc. (now Dynamic Structures and Materials, LLC), a small engineering corporation that designed and fabricated devices in adaptive structural systems using smart materials. In 1995, Dr. Garcia was named an Office of Naval Research Young Investigator and appointed a 1993 Presidential Faculty Fellow by President Clinton. Dr. Garcia is author of more than 275 articles, book chapters, edited volumes, and books. In 2002, he received the prestigious American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Adaptive Structures Prize for “significant contributions to the sciences and technologies associated with adaptive structures and/or materials systems.” Since 2006, he has served as editor in chief of the Smart Materials and Structures journal. Dr. Garcia is a fellow of the Institute of Physics and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
GEORGE T. (Rusty) GRAY III is a laboratory fellow and staff member in the dynamic properties and constitutive modeling team within the Materials Science Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He came to LANL following a three-year visiting scholar position at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg in Hamburg, Germany, having received his Ph.D. in materials science in 1981 from Carnegie Mellon University. As a staff member (1985-1987) and later team leader (1987-2003) in the Dynamic Materials Properties and Constitutive Modeling Section within the Structure/Property Relations Group (MST-8) at LANL, he directed a research team working on investigations of the dynamic constitutive and damage response of materials. He conducts fundamental, applied, and focused programmatic research on materials and structures, in particular in response to high strain rate and shock deformation. His research is focused on experimental and modeling studies of substructure evolution and the mechanical response of materials. He is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, where he was on sabbatical in the summer of 1998. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, ASM International, and the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS). He serves on the International Scientific Advisory Board of the European DYMAT Association. In 2010 he served as the president of TMS. He has authored or coauthored more than 380 technical publications.
PRABHAT HAJELA is provost and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. His research interests include analysis and design optimization of multidisciplinary systems; system reliability; emergent computing paradigms for design; artificial intelligence; and machine learning in multidisciplinary analysis and design. Before joining Rensselaer, he worked as a research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles, for a year and was on the faculty at the University of Florida for seven years. He has conducted research at NASA’s Langley and Glenn Research Centers and the Eglin Air Force Armament Laboratory. In 2003, Dr. Hajela served as a congressional fellow responsible for science and technology policy in the Office of U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT). He worked on several legislative issues related to aerospace and telecommunications policy, including the anti-SPAM legislation that was signed into law in December 2003. Dr. Hajela is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), a fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI), and a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has held many editorial assignments, including editor of Evolutionary Optimization and associate editor of the AIAA journal and is on the editorial boards of six other international journals. He has published over 270 papers
and articles in the areas of structural and multidisciplinary optimization and is an author or coauthor of four books in these areas. In 2004, he was the recipient of AIAA’s Biennial Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Award.
JENNIE S. HWANG, NAE, is chief executive officer of H-Technologies Group and board trustee and distinguished adjunct professor at Case Western Reserve. Her career encompasses corporate and entrepreneurial businesses, international collaboration, research management, technology transfer, and global leadership positions, as well as corporate and university governance. She has held senior executive positions with Lockheed Martin, SCM Corporation, and Sherwin Williams and has cofounded entrepreneurial businesses. She is internationally recognized as a pioneer and long-standing leader in the fast-moving infrastructure development of electronics miniaturization and green manufacturing. Dr. Hwang is an inventor and author of 350+ publications, including the sole authorship of several internationally used textbooks. As a columnist for the globally circulated trade magazines Global Solar Technology and SMT, she addresses technology issues and global market thrusts. She also has served on the International Advisory Board of the Singapore Advanced Technology and Manufacturing Institute and as a board director for Fortune 500 and private companies. Over the years, she has taught tens of thousands of professionals and managers in professional development courses, providing the continuing education and disseminating new technologies to the workforce. The YWCA’s Dr. Jennie S. Hwang Award was established to encourage and recognize outstanding women students in science and engineering. Her formal education includes the Harvard Business School Executive Program, a Ph.D. in materials science and engineering, two M.S. degrees, one in chemistry and one in liquid crystal science, and a bachelor’s degree in chemistry.
Staff
LIZA HAMILTON is the administrative coordinator for the Laboratory Assessments Board in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences at the National Research Council (NRC). Since 2002, she has been responsible for managing the administrative aspects of panel formation, panel meetings, report publication and dissemination, and program development. In addition, she has designed newsletters, brochures, covers, and figures for numerous reports prepared by the NRC’s Division on Life Sciences and its Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences. Ms. Hamilton earned a four-year certification in musical theater performance from Pinellas County Center for the Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida; a B.F.A. in film studies from the University of Utah; a design certification from Maryland Institute College of Art; and the master of liberal arts from the Johns Hopkins University.
EVA LABRE is the program associate for the Laboratory Assessments Board in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences at the NRC. Since 2009, she has been responsible for assisting in the management of the administrative aspects of panel formation, panel meetings, report publication and dissemination, and program development. In addition, she has been responsible for travel expense accounting. Ms. Labre previously held administrative positions on the staff of the Committee on International Organizations and Programs in the NRC Office of International Affairs and on the staff of the Research Associateship Program in the NRC Office of Scientific and Engineering Personnel. Ms. Labre has a B.A. in art history from George Washington University.
JAMES P. McGEE is the director of the Laboratory Assessments Board, the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board (ARLTAB), and the Committee on National Institute of Standards and Technology Technical Programs, in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences at the NRC. Since 1994, he has been a senior staff officer at the NRC, directing projects in the areas of systems engineering and applied psychology, including activities of ARLTAB and projects of the Committee on National Statistics’ Panel on Operational Testing and Evaluation of the Stryker Vehicle and the
Committee on Assessing the National Science Foundation’s Scientists and Engineers Statistical Data System, the Committee on the Health and Safety Needs of Older Workers, and the Steering Committee on Differential Susceptibility of Older Persons to Environmental Hazards. He has also served as staff officer for NRC projects on air traffic control automation, musculoskeletal disorders and the workplace, and the changing nature of work. Prior to joining the NRC, Dr. McGee held technical and management positions in systems engineering and applied psychology at IBM, General Electric, RCA, General Dynamics, and United Technologies. He received his B.A. from Princeton University and his Ph.D. from Fordham University, both in psychology, and for several years instructed postsecondary courses in applied psychology and in organizational management.
ARUL MOZHI is senior program officer at the Laboratory Assessments Board in the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences at the NRC. Since 1999, he has been a senior program officer at the NRC, directing projects in the areas of defense science and technology, including those carried out by numerous study committees of the Laboratory Assessments Board, the Army Research Laboratory Technical Assessment Board, the Naval Studies Board, and the National Materials and Manufacturing Board. Prior to joining the NRC, Dr. Mozhi held technical and management positions in systems engineering and applied materials research and development at UTRON, Inc.; Roy F. Weston, Inc.; and Marko Materials, Inc. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees (the latter in 1986) in materials engineering from the Ohio State University and then served as a postdoctoral research associate there. He received his B. Tech. in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1982.
