Professor Narendra B. Dahotre is currently Chairman of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, the University of North Texas and formerly UT-ORNL joint faculty at the University of Tennessee. He is acknowledged for his pioneering contributions to the fundamental understanding and engineering of laser-materials interactions along with the implementation of high power lasers in materials processing and surface engineering. He is internationally known for his work on fundamentals and applications of laser surface engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. His work over 25 years on laser materials-interactions has been compiled in four books, 15 U.S. Patents, 12 proceedings and over 200 papers. He has been elected to the 2010 Class of SME Fellows, 2009 Class of AAAS Fellows, 2008 Class of ASME Fellows, 2008 Class of IIM Fellows and 2004 Class of ASM Fellows.
He is the recipient of the 2006 R&D 100 Award, 2006 University of Tennessee Chancellor's Research and Creativity Achievement Award, 2006 University of Tennessee College of Engineering Research Fellow Award. He has a B.S. degree from the University of Poona, India and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Michigan State University, USA.
Dr. Anoop Samant completed his Bachelor of Engineering Degree (B.E) in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pune, India in 2001. He then worked for Bajaj Auto Limited, Akurdi, India for a brief period of six months after which he went abroad to the United States of America for higher education. He obtained his Masters Degree (M.S) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT in 2004. Anoop completed his doctorate (Ph.D.
) in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN in 2009 under the guidance of Dr. Narendra Dahotre. His dissertation topic was laser machining of structural ceramics. In this period, he was an author and co-author of 25+ publications in the most prestigious international refereed journals. He also presented his work at high profile international conferences, including The Metals, Minerals and Materials Society (TMS) and Materials Science and Technology (MS&T). He is currently with the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR where he continues his research work in the field of lasers. Dr. Samant has also reviewed several technical papers for major international journals.