Biography

Suresh G. Advani is the Unidel Pierre S. du Pont Chair of Engineering at the University of Delaware. He received his Ph. D from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1987. His research interests include rheology, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer as applied to composite processing and alternate energy sources such as fuel cells and hydrogen storage. Advani has published over 350 journal papers and delivered over 200 invited lectures. He is the lead author of a text on Process Modeling in Composite Manufacturing Processes. Professor Advani is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and is the North American Editor for the journal Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing. Professor Advani received the Outstanding Researcher Award for 2015 from the American Society of Composites and the Educator of the Year award from the Society of Plastic Engineers. Professor Advani is also the co-creator of Liquid Mold Filling Software called LIMS, which many industries and academic institutions use to advance the manufacturing science of composites. Professor Advani was selected to chair the 24th International Conference on Composite Materials in 2025.

Biography

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. David May has studied Industrial Engineering and Management, specializing in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU), Germany. In January 2012 he graduated with a diploma thesis on the economic efficiency of the thermoplastic tape laying process. He then joined the Leibniz-Institut für Verbundwerkstoffe (IVW) and in July 2015 he received his doctorate degree for his dissertation dealing with the impregnation behavior of textile reinforcements. After successful habilitation at the RPTU in June 2021, he received the venia legendi in the field "Process Engineering for Composite Materials". In January 2023, he was appointed research director of the program area "Digitalization" at IVW and in parallel led the interdisciplinary research group "TopComposite - Topology-Optimized and Resource-Efficient Composites for Mobility and Transport", funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

David May has been an active member of the FPCM community for more than ten years. During this time he has organized the latest international benchmark study on in-plane permeability and the subsequent ISO standardization of the process. He also co-organized the benchmarking studies on out-of-plane permeability, textile compressibility as well as virtual permeability prediction. Since 2016 he organizes dedicated workshops on these topics at each FPCM. His continuous efforts in this field were rewarded with an appointment as member of FPCM’s Scientific Committee in 2023. Experimental, numerical and machine learning based characterization of textile properties, especially permeability, remain his major research interests.

In August 2024, he was appointed as full professor at the University of Bremen and director of Faserinstitut Bremen e.V. (FIBRE). FIBRE is a successful research institute with 70 employees, a strong and manifold academic and industrial network, and more than 50 years of experience in the development of high-performance composites and technical fibers, manufacturing technologies, process digitization, modelling and simulation, as well as testing.

Biography

Simon Bickerton is a Professor within, and Head of the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Auckland. In 2012 he took extended leave from the University of Auckland, taking up a position with the BMW Group, Munich, Germany. There he worked within the department responsible for manufacture of structural carbon fibre parts, with a focus on the BMW Project i. Simon returned to his academic post at the University of Auckland in 2015, focussing on sustainable composite materials manufacturing, and multifunctional materials and systems. He was Director of the Centre for Advanced Composite Materials, and Co-Director of the recently established Centre for Advanced Materials Manufacturing and Design until February of 2024.

Biography

Véronique Michaud is currently the Director of the Laboratory for Processing of Advanced Composites, at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, in Switzerland. She graduated in 1987 from Ecole des Mines in Paris with an engineering degree, in 1991 from MIT with a PhD in Materials Engineering, and obtained a Research Habilitation from INPG in France in 1994. After a post-doctoral research stay at MIT, she spent 3 years at Ecole Centrale in Paris for teaching and research in the Laboratory for Materials, Structures and Soils Mechanics, before joining EPFL in 1997. Her fields of research are fundamentals of composite materials processing, as well as smart materials and structures including self-healing, shape and vibration control and tailored damping.

Biography

Prof. Prasad Potluri is the Director of Northwest Composites Centre and Academic Theme Lead for Composites at the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, University of Manchester. He was the High Value Manufacturing Catapult Fellow at the NCC Bristol and AMRC Sheffield. Having worked in industry for 6.5 years (Suzuki Motor) prior to moving to an academic career, he is one of the most externally facing academics in the University and delivers both the fundamental research (Technology Readiness Levels 1-3) as well as applied research (TRLs 3-6) driven by industrial pull. Working at the interface of Robotics, Textiles and Composites, the applicant pioneered 3D composites preforming technology. He designed and built several complex machines, and established a world-class Robotics and 3D fiber preforming Lab in Manchester. He received significant funding (£53 million consortium grants with his share of funding £17 million) from a variety of sources including EPSRC, InnovateUK, DSTL, US Air Force as well as direct industrial funding.

Biography

Gangadhara Prusty is a Professor in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing at UNSW Sydney and is the Founding Director of the ARC Training Centre for Automated Manufacture of Advanced Composites (AMAC). Expanding on the achievements of the AMAC centre, Professor Prusty played a pivotal role in forming a consortium that led the successful bid for the Sovereign Manufacturing Automation of Composites Cooperative Research Centre (SoMAC CRC), now funded by the Commonwealth of Australia and renamed the Australian Composites Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre (ACM CRC). This ambitious $250 million project, set to span from 2023 to 2033, is designed to transform the Australian composites industry by promoting manufacturing automation across 30+ partnering organisations. Professor Prusty's leadership extends to serving as the ACM CRC's Director of Research and Executive Director on the Board.

Professor Prusty has garnered over 100 research grants, authored around 200 journal articles, overseen the education of 35+ Higher Degree Researchers, and introduced significant innovations, including the patenting of Dental Composites and numerous invention disclosures. His educational breakthroughs, especially in adaptive e-Learning tools and pioneering the world's first adaptive MOOC on Engineering Mechanics, have earned global acclaim and numerous prestigious awards, such as the “Australian Awards for University Teaching”. Professor Prusty's work has significantly propelled forward research in composite materials and profoundly impacted engineering education globally.