Ralph Resnick & Rob Gorham receive America Makes Distinguished Collaborator Award
America Makes, Youngstown, Ohio, USA, has named Ralph Resnick, FSME, retired NCDMM President and CEO and America Makes Founding Director, and Rob Gorham, Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Executive Director of Manufacturing Initiatives – Office of Business Development and former America Makes Executive Director, as the recipients of its America Makes Distinguished Collaborator Award.
The America Makes Distinguished Collaborator Award. established in 2014, recognises an individual or a group of individuals with exceptional commitment and dedication to the advancement of AM technology, practices, and innovation in the manufacturing industry. The announcement took place during the annual America Makes Members Meeting and Exchange (MMX) in Youngstown, Ohio, October 22–23, 2019.
Resnick joined the National Centre for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) in September 2008 as Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, already having more than thirty-five years of manufacturing experience. He was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer in May 2011, and led the NCDMM to winning the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute (now America Makes) contract.
Following the contract’s award, he served as Acting Director of the institute until February 2013. In May 2019, he stepped down as President & CEO and assumed a new role as NCDMM Fellow until October 2019, when he retired.
Prior to joining NCDMM, Resnick served as Chief Technology Officer for both the ExOne Company and Extrude Hone Corporation, where he is said to have been a major contributor in establishing both organisations as industry leaders. He holds several patents in manufacturing processes and metrology.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors of SME, and was formerly Chairman of SME’s International Awards and Recognition Committee and President of the North American Manufacturing Research Institute (NAMRI/SME). He serves on the MTConnect Institute Board of Trustees, on the Advisory Board for CANRIMT and the HI-AM Network of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, as well as DoD’s JDMTP Metals Subpanel, and is a member of the International Institution for Production Engineering Research (CIRP).
Gorham joined the NCDMM in 2013 as America Makes’ Deputy Director of Technology Development, and in May 2014, was promoted to Director of Operations. In May 2017, Gorham was promoted to Executive Director of America Makes until his departure in May 2019.
He has more than a decade of defence research and advanced manufacturing experience and prior to joining America Makes, he was Senior Manager of the Manufacturing Exploration and Development (MXD) group within the Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Prototyping (AMS&P) directorate of Lockheed Martin (LM) Aeronautics – Advanced Development Programs (ADP). In this position, he was responsible for leading transition-focused development and the application of affordable manufacturing technologies for LM Aeronautics and other LM Business Areas across the corporation.
Previously, Gorham also served as LM Aeronautics Program Manager for the LM Corporate Engineering and Technology (CE&T) Relevancy Initiative. In this role, he was responsible for working across LM Business Areas to extend the relevancy of LM Aeronautics products and services. He also held the position of LM Aeronautics Program Manager for the LM Corporate Nanotechnology Strategic Technology Thread (STT).
Dean Bartles, Ph.D., NCDMM President and CEO, and John Wilczynski America Makes Executive Director presented Resnick and Gorham with the America Makes Distinguished Collaborator Award, which takes the form of an artistic rendering of an American Badger and a Coyote, designed as a symbolic representation of the collaborative association between the two animals and competitors.
“Without Ralph’s leadership of NCDMM, there would not be an America Makes today, as we know it,” stated Bartles. “Under his guidance and oversight throughout these transformative last seven years, the model of public-private partnerships was established and proven through an extraordinary level of member collaboration. Today, America Makes has attained its goal becoming a recognised national centre of excellence for Additive Manufacturing. While Ralph has embarked on a new chapter of his life, retirement, his legacy will forever be directly tied to America Makes.”
John Wilczynski commented, “During his tenure at America Makes, primarily as Executive Director, Rob worked tirelessly and enthusiastically to lay the strategic groundwork for the Institute’s continued success. He was the architect for the convener, coordinator, and catalyser of people, knowledge, and projects brand messaging for defining the Institute’s role within the AM industry. He strongly believes in and supports the mission of America Makes—a fact he continues to demonstrate in his current role at TEES and our second America Makes Satellite Center. We congratulate Rob for this well-deserved honour and his many contributions to America Makes.”
