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YSU announces first Morris and Phyllis Friedman chairman in engineering at YSU
By Kalea Hall
YOUNGSTOWN
With an endowment and a chairman now in place at Youngstown State University’s Rayen School of Engineering, the university expects to recruit more of the best.
“One of things needed to attract excellent students is bringing in excellent faculty,” said Martin Abraham, YSU provost.
On Tuesday, Abraham, YSU President Jim Tressel and Brett Conner, associate professor of mechanical and industrial engineering and director of the Advanced Manufacturing Workforce Initiatives at YSU, announced Eric W. MacDonald as the first Morris and Phyllis Friedman chairman.
MacDonald is now a part of the YSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and will work to strengthen the already strong additive manufacturing programs at YSU.
“If you want to learn how to do additive manufacturing, you need to come to YSU,” Abraham said.
A $2.5 million donation from Phyllis and Morris Friedman made it possible for YSU to bring in MacDonald, who previously was the Texas Instruments Endowed professor and associate director of the W.M. Keck Center for 3-D Innovation at the University of Texas at El Paso.
UTEP was the first America Makes satellite location. Youngstown’s America Makes was the first additive manufacturing hub in the U.S. created by President Barack Obama’s administration. Because of this connection, Conner and MacDonald collaborated in the past on projects.
“He brings a lot of energy and passion,” Conner said of MacDonald. “He’s going to bring a great depth of knowledge and network in the field of additive manufacturing. He will be able to help us generate research funding here.”
MacDonald will teach engineering classes, pursue and publish research on 3-D printing and work with local and national additive manufacturing researchers.
MacDonald is the editor of the Elsevier Journal of Additive Manufacturing, a “peer-reviewed journal that provides academia and world-leading industry with high-quality research papers and reviews in additive manufacturing,” according to its website.
“The generous donation from the Friedmans is going to help and allow me to leverage the next generation of 3-D scientists,” MacDonald said. “I am fascinated by the history that Youngstown has in steel. I just thought this was an amazing opportunity.”