Dr. Ming C. Leu, a longtime faculty member at Missouri S&T, has been named a Curators’ Distinguished Professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

The University of Missouri Board of Curators awards this title to outstanding faculty members with established reputations in their field of study.

Leu, a member of the S&T faculty since 1999, is the university’s Keith and Pat Bailey Distinguished Professor of Integrated Product Manufacturing. He was the founding director of S&T’s Center for Aerospace Manufacturing and has also served as director of the Intelligent Systems Center.

“Being named a Curators’ Distinguished Professor is a special honor that I will always cherish,” Leu says. “I am fortunate that my professional journey led me to Rolla, Missouri, and I have been able to work with such a supportive group of students and colleagues. I hope they know they have played important roles in my life and in my success as a researcher and educator.”

An expert in additive manufacturing, 3D printing, smart manufacturing, robotics and cyber-physical systems, Leu’s work has been published in hundreds of academic journals and conference papers, book chapters, and other publications. He has been granted five U.S. patents for his inventions and has one patent pending.

Leu has been awarded several professional honors on the university, national and world stage. He is a recipient of the International Freeform and Additive Manufacturing Excellence (FAME) Award; the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME) Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal; the ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award; the International Symposium on Flexible Automation’s Hideo Hanafusa Outstanding Investigator Award; and the University of Missouri System President’s Award for Leadership, among others.

Before joining the S&T faculty, Leu was a program director for the National Science Foundation and held faculty positions at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Cornell University. He has served as a visiting professor at universities in Singapore, China, Taiwan and South Africa, and he has been a professional consultant for companies around the world.

Leu is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the International Academy of Production Engineering and ASME.

He earned three degrees in mechanical engineering, including a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkley, a master’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University, and a bachelor’s degree from National Taiwan University.

For more information about Missouri S&T’s mechanical and aerospace engineering programs, visit mae.mst.edu.

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.