About our authors
Serope Kalpakjian is professor emeritus of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  He is the author of Mechanical Processing of Materials and co-author of Lubricants and Lubrication in Metalworking Operations (with E.S. Nachtman); the first editions of those textbooks have received the M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Textbook Award. He has conducted research in various areas of manufacturing, is the author of numerous technical papers and articles in handbooks and encyclopedias, and has edited a number of conference proceedings. He also has been editor and co-editor of several technical journals and has served on various editorial boards, including the Encyclopedia Americana.
Among various awards, Professor Kalpakjian has received the Forging Industry Educational and Research Foundation Best Paper Award, the Excellence in Teaching Award from IIT, the ASME Centennial Medallion, the International Education Award from SME, A Person of the Millennium Award from lIT, the Albert Easton White Outstanding Teacher Award from ASM International, and the 2016 SME Gold Medal Award. For 2001, Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award of SME was named after him. Professor Kalpakjian is a Life Fellow ASME, Fellow SME, Fellow and Life Member ASM International, Fellow Emeritus International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), and is a founding member and past president of NAMRI. He is a graduate of Robert College (High Honor, Istanbul), Harvard University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Steven R. Schmid is the Belk-Woodward Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Carolina - Charlotte, where he teaches and conducts research in the general areas of manufacturing, machine design and tribology. He previously spent almost 30 years on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame. He received his B.S. degree from Illinois Institute of Technology (with Honors) and Master's and Ph.D. from Northwestern University, all in mechanical engineering. He has received numerous awards, including the David Dornfeld Manufacturing Innovation Award and John T. Parsons Awards from SME, the Newkirk Award from ASME, the Kaneb Center Teaching Award (3 times), and the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching.  He received the SME Gold Medal in 2022 and a lifetime achievement award from the Spanish manufacturing organization MESIC.
Professor Schmid served as President of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI, 2015-2016) and was appointed the first Academic Fellow at the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office, U.S. Department of Commerce, where he helped design the Manufacturing USA program. From 2016 to 2018, he served as the Program Director of the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment program and Head of the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster at the National Science Foundation. Dr. Schmid is the author of over 140 technical papers, and has co-authored Fundamentals of Machine Elements, Fundamentals of Fluid Film Lubrication, Schey's Tribology in Metalworking, Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.