Jian Cao Receives the ASME Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award

NEW YORK, June 11, 2012 – Jian Cao, Ph.D., a resident of Wilmette, Ill., and professor at Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.), was honored by ASME for a paper she co-authored titled “An Investigation on Deformation-Based Surface Texturing.”  She received the Society’s Blackall Machine Tool and Gage Award.

The award, established in 1954, recognizes the best paper or papers clearly concerned with, or related to the design or application of machine tools, gages or dimensional measuring instruments.  It was presented to Dr. Cao during the International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, which was held in Notre Dame, Ind., June 4 through 8.

Cao is a professor of mechanical engineering, and of civil and environmental engineering at Northwestern University.  She has been the director of graduate studies of mechanical engineering since 2008.  During her tenure at Northwestern, which began in 1995, Cao spent a one-year leave at General Motors and a two-year leave at the National Science Foundation (NSF) as a program director.

Cao’s primary research interests are in the mechanics analysis and design of macro/micro metal forming, composite sheet forming processes and laser processes.  Her recent work on surface texturing via laser ablation process and metal deformation process has led to applications in the area of energy efficiency and production.

She has published nearly 100 refereed journal articles among over 200 technical publications; authored two U.S. patents, with 11 more pending; and has given nearly 100 invited talks.

An ASME Fellow, Cao has been an active member of the Society, serving in various leadership capacities since 1998.  Most recently she served as chair of the Administrative and Finance Committee of the ASME Technical Communities Operating Board (2009-11); chair of the Manufacturing Engineering Division’s (MED) Conference Planning Committee (2009-11); and chair of the MED (2008-09).  She received the Applied Mechanics Division’s Thomas J.R. Hughes Young Investigator Award (2006), the Best Poster Award at the 2008 International Manufacturing Science and Engineering Conference, MED’s Distinguished Service Award (2009) and ASME’s Dedicated Service Award (2011).

Cao earned her bachelor’s degree in materials science and engineering, and automatic control at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1989.  She earned her master’s and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1992 and 1995, respectively

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