Dr. Khershed P Cooper, NSF
Dr Cooper is a Program Director in the Advanced Manufacturing program in ENG/CMMI at NSF. He directs basic research activities in advanced manufacturing, and associated Manufacturing USA and NSF-DFG collaborations. He is a disciplinary program officer for the Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) and a co-program director for Critical Aspects of Sustainability (CAS) and CAS-Climate, Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation (EFRI), Network for Computational Nanotechnology (NCN) and National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) and Accelerating Research through International Network-to-Network Collaborations (AccelNet). He was on a 6-month detail in the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE) where he coordinated international collaborative research and development activities with several countries.
He is an NSF representative for NSTC's Nano Science Engineering and Technology (NSET) Sub-committee, which frames the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Strategic Plan. He represents NSF for NextFlex and REMADE Manufacturing USA institutes.
Prior to joining NSF, Dr. Cooper was a Program Officer for Manufacturing Science at ONR and, concurrently, a Senior Research Metallurgist at NRL. His earlier appointments were to serve as Supervisor of the Materials Research Group at Geo-Centers, Inc and a Scientist II at Olin Metals Research Laboratory.
He received his MS and PhD from University of Wisconsin–Madison and his BTech from IIT—Bombay. He has presented at national and international conferences, meetings and workshops over 200 invited talks and over 70 contributed presentations. He has nearly 150 publications, edited one book and holds one patent. He has sponsored and participated in international studies in various emerging areas of materials engineering and advanced manufacturing. He is a Fellow of SME and ASM International and a recipient of ASM International’s Burgess Memorial Award.