America Makes welcomed Brandon Ribic, Ph.D., as its new Technology Director. Dr. Ribic fills the position previously held by John Wilczynski before being named America Makes Executive Direc-tor in June of this year.

Driven by the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM), America Makes is the national accelerator for AM and the first of eight Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MIIs) established and managed by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) as public-private partner-ships. America Makes is also a member of the Manufacturing USA® (MFG USA) network, which seeks to secure U.S. global leadership in advanced manufacturing.

“On behalf of all of us at America Makes, we are excited to welcome Brandon to the America Makes team as our next Technology Director,” said Mr. Wilczynski. “Brandon is no stranger to all of us at America Makes as an active member of the Institute. I personally cannot think of anyone more ideally suited for the Technology Director position than Brandon. With his metallurgical background combined with his AM experience, as well as his ongoing involvement throughout the years with our Governance Board and Roadmap Advisory Group, Brandon is not only well-versed in the mission of America Makes, but also completely dedicated to fulfilling that mission.”

Previously, Dr. Ribic served as a Joining Engineer within the Rolls-Royce Corporation Materials Technology Center. In this capacity, Dr. Ribic led the Materials Technology Center efforts in additive manufacturing (AM) process modeling and insitu process monitoring. Specifically, he has spent more than six years researching and developing welding and AM processes for various titanium and nickel superalloy gas turbine engine components. Dr Ribic has led and participated in multiple Metals Affordability Initiative projects focused on AM of nickel superalloys during the last three years. He also successfully developed, qualified, and productionized (TRL 7) first ever CMSX-4 AM repair for Rolls-Royce.

Additionally, Dr. Ribic represented Rolls-Royce on the America Makes Governance Board and was co-chair of the America Makes Roadmap Advisory Group (RMAG), a committee whose goal is to collaborate with the America Makes Technology Director and provide a holistic perspective, representing multiple industries, applications, and customers for the maturation and implementation of the National Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing Roadmap and Investment Strategy.

Prior to joining Rolls-Royce, Dr. Ribic served as Plant Metallurgist and Quality Assurance Manager at McConway & Torley, LLC, a Trinity Industries, Inc. company.

Dr. Ribic earned his doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering in 2011 from the Pennsylvania State University under the advisement of Prof. T. DebRoy. Dr. Ribic has several patents pending in the area of laser AM.

He is also a member of the American Welding Society (AWS) Graduate Fellowship, co-chair of the AWS High Energy Beam Welding and Cutting committee, and chair of the AWS Laser Hybrid Welding subcommittee.

For more information, visit www.americamakes.us.