Wang

Ben Wang, chief manufacturing officer at Georgia Tech and executive director of the Georgia Tech Manufacturing Institute, will talk on innovative uses of composite materials on Tuesday, Oct. 23, at 3 p.m. in 1103 Shelby Center. His lecture, “Intrinsically Multifunctional Composite Systems,” is hosted by the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering’s Ginn Distinguished Lecture Series.  

Now a $45 billion per year industry, research and development of new and advanced composite materials for industries such as aerospace, automotive, marine and sporting goods, as well as the military, continues to grow. Wang’s presentation will feature ongoing research and development programs at Georgia Tech that focus on advanced composite materials, particularly those on buckypaper-augmented nanocomposites.

Wang holds the Gwaltney Chair in Manufacturing Systems in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering and a courtesy faculty appointment in the School of Materials Science and Engineering. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, Society of Manufacturing Engineers and Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. In addition to authoring or co-authoring more than 200 refereed journal papers, Wang is a co-author of three books. He is a recipient of the David F. Baker Distinguished Researcher Award, Nanotech Briefs’ Nano 50 Award, the Micro/Nano 25 Award and an R&D100 Award. Wang recently participated in a roundtable on strengthening advanced U.S. manufacturing in clean energy at the White House.

The college’s Ginn Distinguished Lecture Series, founded in 2005, brings distinguished leaders from the academic and business communities to Auburn University’s campus to interact with faculty and students. Lectures cover subjects such as engineering, education, entrepreneurship and global engineering issues, as well as engineering and business leadership. Auburn engineering alumnus and wireless engineering pioneer Samuel Ginn donated $25 million to Auburn University in 1999 with the goal of advancing his alma mater into the ranks of the nation's top wireless engineering research and teaching institutions.