Christopher Saldaña is the director of the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO). During this critical and transformative time for AMMTO, Christopher is leading the office's strategy, management, and execution to advance materials and manufacturing technologies and dramatically reduce industrial emissions.
Christopher joined AMMTO from Georgia Tech's George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, where he has worked since 2014, and last served as a Ring Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering. Before that role, he held the Harold and Inge Marcus Career Professorship at Pennsylvania State University and worked as a research engineer at M4 Sciences Corporation.
Christopher has extensive experience supporting industry and government laboratories through visiting affiliations/positions with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, the Indian Institute of Science, Technische Universität Dortmund, Autodesk, and Sandia National Laboratories. Dr. Saldaña has received several awards, including an NSF CAREER award, the Robert J. Hocken SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer award and an R&D100 Technology Award. He is an associate editor for IISE Transactions (Design and Manufacturing). He is on the editorial boards of Manufacturing Letters, Computer Aided Design and Applications, and the ASTM Journal of Smart and Sustainable Manufacturing.
Christopher's research interests are centered on establishing the processing science needed to realize next-generation material systems and manufacturing processes. Dr. Saldaña received a B.S. from Virginia Tech in 2004 and an M.S. and Ph.D. from Purdue University in 2006 and 2010, respectively.