Dr. Narendra Dahotre, professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, has recently been elected to the 2008 Class of Fellows of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has been recognized for excellence and outstanding contributions to basic understanding and engineering of laser-materials interactions along with implementation of high power lasers for materials processing and surface engineering.

Dr. Dahotre has served on a joint faculty appointment with University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory since 2002, including working with the UT Space Institute in Tullahoma for a portion of his time. However, for many years prior to joint appointment, he worked for UTSI full-time.

UT Associate Vice President for UTSI Dr. Don Daniel said, “Dr. Dahotre’s contributions to materials science and engineering are among the very best in his field. I am delighted that the ASME has elected him to this well deserved national honor.” Dahotre has devoted his entire educational and professional career to developing laser-based surface engineering for advanced materials, and is internationally known for his work on the laser surface engineering of metals, ceramics, polymers and composites. He began his work in this field over 25 years ago as graduate student at Michigan State University. Dahotre is most famous for his invention of LISI^TM (Laser Induced Surface Improvement), a laser-based surface enhancement process that reduces wear, erosion, corrosion and oxidation of various mechanical components, thus extending their life by over 30 percent.

Dahotre’s nominator, UTSI’s H.H Arnold Chair of Excellence Dr. Joe Majdalani, referred to Dr. Dahotre as “one of the most illustrious figures of the University of Tennessee” in his nomination.

Dr. Dahotre’s work on laser materials-interactions has been documented in four books, 15 U.S. Patents, 11 proceedings and 169 papers. Dr. Dahotre has also received the 2006 R&D 100 Award, 2006 UT Chancellor’s Research and Creativity Achievement Award, 2006 UT College of Engineering Research Fellow Award and has been elected to 2004 Class of ASM Fellows.