Lifetime Achievement Award

Professor Alexander H. Slocum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Professor Alexander Slocum is recognized for a career in applying precision engineering principles to generate higher performance at lower cost in a wide range of applications. His work in semiconductor lithography, machine tools and manufacturing equipment, medical devices and energy production have yielded over seven dozen patents, numerous design awards, and critical industry standards. Prof. Slocum is a strong advocate for education through his publications, online lectures and notes, classes and tutorials. Many have received their first introduction to precision engineering techniques through his Precision Machine Design textbook. He was awarded a Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for Federal Service, the Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award, the ASME Leonardo da Vinci Award and ASME Machine Design Award, the Massachusetts Professor of the Year in 1999 – among many, many other honors and awards. Professor Slocum was a part of the Department of Energy’s BP Gulf Oil Spill response team and served as the Assistant Director for Advanced Manufacturing in the Executive Office of the White House. Professor Slocum’s lasting contributions include the molding of generations of masters and doctoral students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is presently the Walter M. May (1939) and A. Hazel May Chair in Emerging Technologies.  Professor Slocum was the 108th person to join ASPE in March of 1987. He has served on the ASPE Board, on numerous ASPE Meeting committees and has been a long-time tutor for the ASPE Tutorial Program

Distinguished Service Award

Dr. Jimmie A. Miller, University of North Carolina – Charlotte

Dr. Jimmie Miller is recognized for his dedication to instructing generations of precision engineers on the many aspects of the field. He is an expert practitioner and instructor of machine tool metrology and machine modeling. Dr. Miller has been involved with ASPE since 1990 where he served on the ASPE Board of Directors and chaired the Metrology Systems Technical Leadership Committee, assisted with the planning of multiple conferences, has taught numerous tutorials at the Annual Meetings and served as an Associate Editor for Precision Engineering where he continues to be one of the most thorough and prolific reviewers. Dr. Miller contributed heavily to the forthcoming ASME B5.64 standard on Methods for the Performance Evaluation of Single Axis Linear Positioning Systems (an initiative led largely by ASPE members), and has made multiple presentations at ASPE to both disseminate and gather feedback on it. He currently serves as the Chief Engineer for the graduate faculty in the Center for Precision Metrology at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Dr. Miller also authored the chapter entitled Metrology in the book Basics of Precision Engineering (2018).

ASPE College of Fellows

Oscar M. Lechuga, Fresnel Technologies, Inc.

Mr. Oscar Lechuga is recognized for essential contributions to diamond machining and the precision molding of polymer optics. The millions of lenses produced through these techniques and by his work at Fresnel Technologies have become critical but often hidden parts of daily life. Oscar is a strong advocate for education in optics and optical manufacturing techniques through presentations at the professional, university, and K-12 communities.

ASPE College of Fellows

Dr. Michael Lowell Holmes, Zygo Corporation

Dr. Mike Holmes is recognized for sustained and continuing advancements in heterodyne laser displacement interferometry that have become an enabling technology for semiconductor lithography and high precision manufacturing and inspection systems. These include laser head stabilization, signal processing, evaluation and reduction of cyclic errors, and fundamental research into the effects of air turbulence. Mike is a senior member of the technical staff in the Precision Positioning Solutions group at Zygo Corporation, with over twenty five years of experience in interferometry, metrology, and precision machine design. He has taught multiple tutorials at ASPE meetings and has served as an Associate Editor for Precision Engineering.

Early Career Award

Dr. Neil J. Naples, AMETEK Precitech

Dr. Neil Naples is recognized for his development and publication of techniques for toolpath generation applied to the diamond turning of freeform optics. He is presently combining his experience as a classically trained machinist with this fundamental research on trajectory planning as a Director of Applications at Ametek Precitech. Neil received a doctorate from the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University in 2018.

Early Career Award

Professor Lei Zhou, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Prof. Lei Zhou is recognized for her development of electromagnetic actuators and control techniques applied to high-precision positioning systems. She has expanded on her work in magnetic levitation to form a new overall control co-design approach that combines over-actuation with selected compliance for broader applicability across a range of mechatronic design applications. Prof. Zhou received her doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019 and is an incoming faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Graham J. Siddall Student Scholarship

Parth Pandya, The University of Texas at Austin

Advisor: S. V. Sreenivasan

Parth’s will present his paper entitled Roll-to-Roll Nanoimprint Lithography with Sub-50 nm Features and Sub-25 nm Residual Layer Thickness in Technical Session 4 on Thursday, November 16 at 8:00 AM.

Jan van Eijk Student Scholarship

Jingjie Wu, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Advisor: Lei Zhou

Jingjie Wu is a 4th-year Ph.D. student working in the Precision Mechatronics and Control Lab (PMCL) advised by Dr.Lei Zhou at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his Master’s Degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 2020. At PMCL, he focuses on developing high-performance mechatronics systems through novel control and optimization algorithms, machine learning methods, and structural design for a wide range of applications. His current projects include control co-design of over-actuated lightweight precision positioning systems for high-throughput chip manufacturing and integrated magnetic sensing and actuation of Magnetically Steerable Robotic Catheters for Peripheral Arterial Disease Treatment.

Jingjie will present his paper entitled FleXstage: Lightweight Magnetically Levitated Precision Stage with Over-Actuation towards High-Throughput IC Manufacturing in Technical Session 6 on Thursday, November 16 at 1:30 PM.

R. V. Jones Student Scholarship

Mallory Whalen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor: Mark L. Schattenburg

Mallory is a mechanical engineering graduate student at MIT who is a member of the Space Nanotechnology Laboratory. Mallory’s research focuses on lightweight X-ray mirrors. Specifically, Mallory works on developing new methods both for characterizing the stress stability of candidate mirror coatings and for metrology of the mirror’s near-cylindrical surface.

Mallory will present her paper entitled High-Precision Stress Measurement in Thin Films in Technical Session 3 on Wednesday, November 15 at 1:30 PM.

Thomas A. Dow Student Scholarship

Jixuan (Sean) Feng, The University of Texas at Austin

Advisor: Lei Zhou, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sean received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 2022 and is now working towards his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, both from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of the Precision Mechatronics and Controls Lab under Dr. Lei Zhou, where his research focuses on developing high-torque direct-drive robotic actuators.

Sean will present his paper entitled Small-size Vernier Permanent Magnet Motors for High-torque Direct-drive Actuation in Poster Session 2 on Thursday, November 16 at 3:15 PM.

ASPE Student Scholarship

Laura Homiller, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Advisor: Lei Zhou

Laura Homiller received her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022, and her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University in 2020. She is now working as a PhD student in Dr. Lei Zhou’s Precision Mechatronics and Controls Lab at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, conducting research on self-sensing bearingless motors and the design of high-torque direct-drive robotic actuators. 

Laura will present her paper entitled Self-Sensing Magnetic Bearing in Poster Thursday, November 16 at 3:15 PM.

ASPE Student Scholarship

Yeeun Bae, Ajou University

Advisor: Young Man Choi

Yeeun will present her paper entitled 6 Degree-of-Freedom Force-Torque Sensor based on Electromagnetic Force Compensation in Technical Session 3 on Wednesday, November 15 at 1:30 PM.