Kemper Lewis, professor and dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general science society and publisher of the journal “Science.”
Lewis was recognized for his distinguished contributions to the field of design automation, advancing both fundamental decision theory and novel applications to systems design, design analytics, and Industry 4.0.
He is one of seven University at Buffalo faculty members to receive the distinction this year. The other UB faculty are Sherry Chemler, Jean-Pierre Koenig, Gabriela Popescu, Thomas Russo, Frederick Stoss and Janet Yang.
Lewis' research interests include engineering design, system optimization and advanced manufacturing. Before being named dean in 2020, he served as the chair of UB’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, where he was the Moog Professor of Innovation. He is also the director of UB’s Community of Excellence in Sustainable Manufacturing and Advanced Robotic Technologies (SMART), a university-wide initiative to develop advanced manufacturing and design processes including autonomy, intelligence and materials technologies.
He has served on the National Academies Panel on Benchmarking the Research Competitiveness of the United States in Mechanical Engineering and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Lewis is also serving as the co-chair of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) 2024 Engineering Dean’s Institute.
His recent awards include the 2019 ASME Donald N. Zwiep Innovation in Education Award, 2017 ASME Design Automation Award, and UB’s Exceptional Scholar Award for Sustained Achievement in 2017. Lewis has published over 200 refereed journal articles and conference proceedings and has been a principal or co-principal investigator on grants totaling over $33 million.