Innovator of the Year

Diran, WPI faculty member, is the 2018 WPI Innovator of the Year. Widely recognized for his innovative work in metal processing and for his leadership as a researcher and educator, he is the Alcoa-Howmet Professor of Mechanical Engineering at WPI, founding director of the Metal Processing Institute, and director of the Advanced Casting Research Center. He has done breakthrough work in the fields of molten metal processing, plasma processing, spray casting, and shape casting of aluminum alloys. Diran’s development of technologies to recover and recycle materials is critically important for a sustainable future. His scholarship is valued and used by the industrial sector; he has a talent for bridging industrial and academic communities, and for identifying fundamental scientific issues. He is the recipient of many distinguished national and international honors and awards, and was one of four WPI faculty members recognized with the 2016 Bernard Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering Education. He is a member of four Academies: National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Armenian Academy of Science, European Academy of Science, and National Academy of Inventors (NAI).