On February 8, 2023, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) released its list of new academicians, and Alan Luo, the alumni of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, was elected. He used to teach and had his PhD. candidate in HUST. He now holds the position of tenured professor of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University (USA), and director of the Institute of Lightweight Materials and Manufacturing.

Being a member of the NAE is one of the highest professional honors for experts in the field of engineering. The honor recognizes “significant contributions to engineering research, practice, and education”, “pioneering work in emerging fields and significant contributions to traditional engineering fields” and “innovative contributions to the development and implementation of engineering education”. This time, 106 native academicians and 18 foreign academicians were elected, and they will be formally appointed at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Engineering to be held in October of this year.

In 1987, Alan Luo joined the Foundry Teaching and Research Department of Huazhong Institute of Technology (now Huazhong University of Science and Technology), where he studied for his doctorate under the guidance of Prof. Wang Wenqing, with his research interests in foundry process and molding materials. In 1989, he went to Drexel University (USA) to continue his research work. In 1993, he received his PhD degree in Engineering Materials from the University of Windsor (Canada). Before his joining Ohio State University as a faculty member in July 2013, he was a Technical Fellow at the General Motors Global Research and Development Center (USA), with more than 20 years of industrial R&D experience. Luo was the second Chinese scientist to receive the Chalmers Award for outstanding contributions to light metal processing, alloy development, and automotive applications, and he holds 21 patents and more than 300 technical publications in advanced materials, manufacturing, and applications. In 2021, he was included among the top 2% of scientists worldwide by Elsevier. And in 2023, he was elected as member of NAE for his enormous contributions to the implementation of lightweight aluminum, magnesium, and titanium materials and advanced manufacturing processes for automotive applications.