Winners of the 2010 Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Richard E. Morley (inventor of the programmable controller) Outstanding Young Manufacturing Award have been announced. Those being honored for their inventions or patents include:

• Salil S. Desai, Industrial & Systems Engineering and Integrated Nano and Bio Manufacturing Laboratory, North Carolina A&T State Univ, Greensboro, NC. Desai is an associate professor at North Carolina A&T State University and director of the Integrated Nano and Bio Manufacturing Laboratory. There, he investigates hybrid nano manufacturing combining direct-write fabrication and nanoimprint lithography with applications in the areas of drug delivery, stem cell differentiation, and fuel cells. He is the author of more than 50 publications and several invention disclosures. Desai also holds one international patent.

• Mervyn Fathianathan, BioMBi ers Pte Ltd, Singapore. Fathianathan is currently managing director of BioMers Pte Ltd, a company engaged in the design and manufacture of polymer composite based medical devices. At BioMers, he led the development of the world’s only clear orthodontic braces. He has a patent pending for the design of a polymer composite based dental retainer. His inventions have been commercialized and sold in more than 35 countries.

• A. John Hart, Dept of Mechanical Engineering and School of Art and Design, Univ of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Hart is assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, where he leads the Mechanosynthesis Group, which studies the science and manufacturing of nanostructured materials for applications that include medical and healthcare. Hart and his students are credited with innovations in synthesis and applications of carbon nanotubes. He has over 10 pending patents and 40 journal publications in this field.

• Zhaowei Liu, Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Univ of California - San Diego. Zhaowei Liu is an assistant professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, San Diego, where he leads a research group dedicated to such fields as nanophotonics, plasmonics, nanomaterials, and biomedical imaging. Liu has been a principal driver in developing new concepts, devices, and techniques for far-field superlens, optical hyperlens, and other imaging devices. His work in these areas was selected as a Top 10 scientific discovery of 2008 by Time and a Top 100 science story of 2007 by Discover. He holds patents in the fields of nanoimaging and nanolithography.

Nominations for the 2011 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award are due Aug 1, 2010, and forms can be downloaded at www.sme.org/awards.