Home /What’s New at NSF – Update from NSF Program Directors 

What’s New at NSF – Update from NSF Program Directors 

Wednesday, June 12, 2019 | 16:00 - 17:30 |  
Organizers: Scott Smith, Brian Paul, and Zhijian (ZJ) Pei 

In this special session, four NSF program directors from the NSF Advanced Manufacturing Cluster will update the audience what is new at NSF, especially regarding advanced manufacturing. They will also answer questions from the audience. 

The panelists at this special session are: 

  • Khershed Cooper, Program Director – Responsible for Advanced Manufacturing (AM), Engineering Research Centers (ERCs), and Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN). 

  • Robert Landers, Program Director – Responsible for Dynamics, Controls, and System Diagnostics (DCSD) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) 

  • Brigid Mullany, Program Director – Responsible for Advanced Manufacturing (AM) and Leading Engineering for America’s Prosperity, Health, and Infrastructure (LEAP HI). 

  • Steven R. Schmid, Program Director 

Khershed P Cooper


Program Director  
National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Khershed P. Cooper is NSF representative for the National Science & Technology Council (NSTC)'s Nano Science Engineering & Technology (NSET) Sub-committee, and he is a member of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)’s Signature Initiative on Sustainable Nanomanufacturing.  He contributes to the development of the Manufacturing USA Institutes.  Prior to joining NSF, Khershed was a Program Officer at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and a Senior Research Metallurgist at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), where he studied materials processing, additive and nano manufacturing.  He also has industrial research experience. He has nearly 150 publications, over 150 invited talks, and 70 contributed presentations.  He has sponsored symposia and workshops in additive and nano-manufacturing.  He is a Fellow of ASM International and a recipient of its prestigious Burgess Memorial Award. He received his PhD from University of Wisconsin - Madison. Currently he is a Program Director in the Advanced Manufacturing Program at the National Science Foundation. 

Robert Landers 

Program Director  
National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Robert Landers received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1990, his Masters of Engineering degree from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992, and his Doctorate of Philosophy degree from the University of Michigan in 1997, all in Mechanical Engineering. Upon graduation he worked as a Research Scientist in the NSF Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Machining at the University of Michigan. In 2000 he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (formerly the University of Missouri Rolla) where he a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering working in the areas control of advanced manufacturing processes and electrochemistry. He received the SME Eugene Merchant Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2004, the Blackall Machine Tool and Gage award in 2014, and was elected ASME Fellow in 2014. Currently he is a Program Director in the Dynamics, Controls, and Cognition Cluster at the National Science Foundation and the Vice Chair of the ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Division. 

Brigid Mullany 

Program Director  
National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Brigid Mullany received her Bachelor of Engineering Degree and Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from University College Dublin in Ireland. Upon graduation she received a two-year EU Marie Curie postdoctoral research position at Carl Zeiss in Germany. In 2004 she joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she a Professor working in the area of surface finishing and advanced manufacturing. She received the SME Kuo K Wang Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award in 2007, and the NSF CAREER award in 2008. Currently she is a Program Director in the Advanced Manufacturing Program at the National Science Foundation. She is active in CIRP, and is the Vice Chair of the Scientific Technical Committee on Surfaces (STC-S). 

Steven R. Schmid 

Program Director
National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Steven R. Schmid received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology; Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees at Northwestern University; and is a Professor at the University of Notre Dame.  He conducts research and teaches courses in the general fields of manufacturing, metal forming, tribology, and design. Of his textbooks, Manufacturing Engineering and Technology (with S. Kalpakjian) is the world's most popular manufacturing textbook. Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, Fundamentals of Machine Elements and Fundamentals of Fluid Film Lubrication are some of his other books.  In 2012-2013, Dr. Schmid was the first Faculty Fellow at the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office. He has won numerous best paper and teaching awards, and served as President of the North American Manufacturing Research Institute from 2015-2016. He is a Fellow of ASME and SME. He is currently a Program Director in the Advanced Manufacturing Program at the National Science Foundation