Associate Professor Andy Sarles and Professor Tony Schmitz have been named Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This prestigious honor recognizes ASME members who have been responsible for significant engineering achievements, has no less than ten years of active practice in their respective field, and at least ten years of corporate membership in the society. Only 3,388 out of over 64,000 ASME members have received this honor.
Andy Sarles
Sarles is director of the Bioinspired Materials and Transduction Laboratory, where his research group studies materials built from biological molecules or bio-inspired assemblies to achieve smart functionality, including sensing, actuation, learning, and computing. He’s also working to understand the biophysics of membrane-nanoparticle interactions that could have real implications in drug delivery.
In 2020, Sarles received the Dr. James C. Conklin Endowed Faculty Fellowship for Mechanical Engineering in recognition of his performance as an outstanding scholar. He is the only faculty member to receive this honor and will hold the title of “James Conklin Fellow” until 2025. Sarles recently served as General Chair of the ASME 2021 Conference on Smart Materials, Adaptive Structures and Intelligent Systems, and he has received many awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, ASME’s Gary Anderson Early Achievement Award, the UT Research Foundation Innovation Award for Technology Licensing, and the Tickle College of Engineering Professional Promise in Research Award. He holds two patents—one for a microscope slide-in chamber and one for a measurement technique for determining the electrical capacitance and interfacial tension of a membrane which is now licensed by T&T Scientific in Knoxville, TN.
Tony Schmitz
Schmitz is a joint faculty member at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and director of the Machine Tool Research Center. His research focuses on manufacturing, machining, vibrations, measurement, and uncertainty analysis. Schmitz recently developed the America’s Cutting Edge (ACE) online and in-person training program in collaboration with IACMI-The Composites Institute and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Since its December 2020 launch, over 2,000 participants have registered for the CNC machining and metrology (measurement) training programs. ACE is supported by the Department of Defense Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program from the Office of Industrial Policy with the mission to return the US to international leadership in manufacturing. In cooperation with ACE, Schmitz is now directing the Southeastern Advanced Machine Tools Network, a UT-led consortium with the goal to establish the greater Tennessee Valley as the US hub for machine tool research, development, and training.
Schmitz is currently serving as associate editor for the SME Journal of Manufacturing Processes. His awards and recognitions include an endowed professorship at Technical University Wien in Vienna, Austria, a 2021 R&D 100 award, the 2021 SME Education Award, 2020 ASPE Fellow, and 2019 SME Frederick W. Taylor Research Medal.
For more information on ASME Fellows visit https://www.asme.org/about-asme/honors-awards/fellows.