New Horizons in Engineering

Engineering Distinguished Lecture Series Continues October 15

"Nurturing Engineering Education for Manufacturing" 
Lecture by Dr. Alton (Al) D. Romig Jr., Executive Officer National Academy of Engineering Washington, DC
October 15, 2:30 p.m., Student Center Multipurpose Rooms

The New Horizons in Engineering Distinguished Lectureship Series at Clarkson University is proud to announce that Dr. Alton (Al) D. Romig Jr. , Executive Officer of the National Academy of Engineering, will deliver his Distinguished Lecture in the Student Center Multipurpose Rooms on October 15 at 2:30 PM.  A reception will precede the lecture at 2 PM. The event is open to the public, which is most welcome.

Dr. Romig is executive officer of the National Academy of Engineering, which is congressionally chartered to provide, when requested, advice to the federal government on matters of engineering and technology. As chief operating officer Dr. Romig is responsible for the Academy’s program, financial, and membership operations, reporting to the president.

Before assuming his current position, he was vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company’s Advanced Development Programs, better known as the Skunk Works®, the preeminent seat of US aerospace innovation for more than 70 years. He led research and advanced development activities and set the strategic direction for current and future programs for the company’s Aeronautics Business Area.

Dr. Romig spent more than 30 years with Sandia National Laboratories (operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company) before joining Advanced Development Programs. His senior leadership responsibilities included development and engineering activities providing science, technology, and systems expertise in support of US programs in military technology, nuclear deterrence and proliferation prevention, technology assessments, intelligence and counterintelligence, homeland security, and energy programs. As a member of the technical staff, he is one of the few engineers to have worked on every nuclear weapons system currently in the US stockpile.

He held a variety of management assignments at Sandia, including director of the Materials Science and Engineering Center and, later, the Center for Microelectronics and Microsystems, where he was responsible for creating the laboratories’ intelligent, integrated microsystems program.  Dr. Romig played a major role in the establishment of the laboratories’ Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications (MESA) facility. 

Upon promotion to chief technology officer and vice president for Science, Technology, and Partnerships, he served as chief scientific officer for the Nuclear Weapons Program, assumed responsibility for Sandia’s interactions with industry and academia, and led Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program. Later he was vice president for Intelligence and Nonproliferation Programs and director of Sandia’s Field Intelligence Element. As executive vice president he led all of Sandia’s nonnuclear weapon activities in the Integrated Technology Systems Business Unit. 

He was also deputy laboratories director and chief operating officer responsible for all aspects of Laboratory business, including the science and technology base supporting all Laboratory programs, before transferring to the Skunk Works.

Dr. Romig was a member of the UK Board of the Atomic Weapons Establishment. He served two terms on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), the main advisory body to the Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology and director of the laboratory.  Dr. Romig also serves or has served on advisory committees at the University of Washington, MIT, Ohio State, Purdue, Georgia Tech, the Colorado School of Mines, and Sandia National Laboratories. 

In addition, he also served as a member of the board of directors of Football Research, Inc., a nonprofit entity created and supported by the National Football League to review engineering technology to improve the safety of the sport. He is also visiting associate of applied physics and materials science at Cal Tech.  He has served on advisory committees to several DOE National Labs including Sandia, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge.  He currently serves in an advisory capacity to Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Dr. Romig was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 and the Council on Foreign Relations in 2008. He is a fellow of the Minerals, Metals, and Materials Society (TMS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a fellow and honorary member of ASM International, which awarded him the ASM Silver Medal for Materials Research in 1988. In 2023, Dr. Romig also received the IEEE-USA George F. McClure Citation of Honor for his significant contributions to the aerospace industry, national security, and engineering policy.

He received his BS, MS, and PhD in materials science and engineering from Lehigh University in 1975, 1977, and 1979, respectively.  He holds active TS-SCI and Q clearances.

Established by an Act of Congress signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, the National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit institution that has long served the nation by providing independent scientific and technical advice whenever called upon. Over the decades, the Academy—along with the National Research Council (established in 1916), the National Academy of Engineering (founded in 1964), and the National Academy of Medicine (established in 1970 and rechartered in 2015)—has conducted thousands of studies on a broad spectrum of issues critical to the country’s development, in both times of peace and conflict.

Since the Academy’s inception, manufacturing has been a central theme across many of these studies. The engineering workforce—and, by extension, engineering education—has remained a primary area of attention in these investigations and analyses. This lecture and discussion will highlight the pivotal role of the National Academies in advancing the nation’s security and economic prosperity through research and recommendations related to manufacturing and engineering education.

For more details, please contact Dr. Liya Regel, The New Horizons in Engineering Distinguished Lectureship Series Founder and Chair, at lregel@clarkson.edu.

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About Liya Regel

Dr. Liya Regel is a pioneer in research on high-energy, heavy-ion implantation in III-V semiconductors, magnetic semiconductors and rare-earth materials using the nuclear particles accelerators, and the heavy-ion accelerators. She pioneered research on centrifugal processing of materials and flow visualization, including the creation of several new types of apparatus and discovery of very surprising phenomena that excited the entire global materials science community.

Dr. Regel is well known as the inventor of a technique for deposition of diamond films at low pressure and at temperatures sufficiently low to permit coating of some polymers. Research interests also include the influence of microgravity and centrifugation on deposition of diamond films and directional solidification of compound semiconductors, metal alloys and composite materials.

Professor Regel is the author of 6 monographs published in France, Russia, UK and USA; and over 300 scientific papers; edited and co-edited 6 books and conference proceedings. She has made over 600 presentations, including university commencement speeches, plenary lectures, keynote and inaugural addresses, and invited seminars. She has served in many significant leadership positions in national and international organizations, and chaired programs and organizing committees for over 200 scientific meetings. She has mentored many students at all levels, along with post-doctoral visitors. They subsequently attained highly responsible positions in universities, companies, and national laboratories. One of her doctoral students was a cosmonaut.

Dr. Regel participated in more than 250 experiments on materials processing and crystal growth in space and over 100 experiments on large centrifuge as PI or Co-PI. At Clarkson Professor Regel was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science in 2002 (only active faculty to receive). She received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from Alabama A&M University for her academic accomplishments in science and art (only woman scientist to receive this honor).

She is elected Academician (Section 1: Basic Science) of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). At the IAA she founded and chaired the Advanced Materials Science Committee, received the Basic Science Award, and the Best Book Award, and founded the Study Group “STEM/STEAM for Space. Grand Challenges.” She was elected Chair of the Nominating Committee of the President, Officers and Trustees of the Academy for 2021-2023, and current Co-Chair of this Committee.

Dr. Regel earned her Kandidat degree in solid state physics (The Kandidat is equivalent to the Ph.D. in the U.S.) She was awarded Russia’s highest degree, the coveted Doctorat, for which there is no Western equivalent, in Physics and Mathematical Sciences. The Doctorat is given to only a very small percentage of those with the Kandidat. Indeed, she remains one of very few women to have received this recognition for her research in solid state physics.

In her university days, Dr. Regel had to make the difficult choice between physics and concert piano, at both of which she was equally adept. While she chose physics, she has maintained her interest in composing music and live improvisation. She includes her music and art (sound-image presentations) in STEAM lectures. She has long been an advocate of including the creative arts in the education of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. She created the acronym STEAM in 2001. Dr. Regel’s original paintings and high-quality giclée prints hang on permanent display in the museums, a church, universities and private collections.