Suryanarayana Challapalli University of Central Florida

Dr. Suryanarayana Challapalli has been a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, since January 2001. He holds a B.E. (Metallurgy) from Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi, India, where he worked as a Professor till 1988. He then came to the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH as a National Research Council Senior Research Associate for two years, and later worked as Associate Director of the Institute for Materials and Advanced Processes at the University of Idaho in Moscow, and as a Research Professor at the Colorado School of Mines. His expertise is in the field of nanomaterials and non-equilibrium processing of materials to develop novel and improved materials. He has authored 9 books, edited 12 conference proceedings, contributed 19 book chapters, published over 300 research papers in archival journals, and presented over 100 plenary, key-notes, and invited lectures in several international conferences. He has received numerous awards and honors including the Young Scientist Medal of the Indian National Science Academy, Pandya Silver Medal of the Indian Institute of Metals, National Metallurgists’ Day Award of the Government of India, Lee-Hsun Research Award of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of Banaras Hindu University. He has held Visiting Professorship positions at several universities. He is a member of the Editorial Board of several international journals and has served on NSF panels in addition to evaluating proposals submitted to overseas funding agencies. Dr. Challapalli is a Fellow of ASM International and also of the Institute for Materials, Minerals, and Mining of London, UK. He was recently listed by Thomson Reuters as one of the top 40 researchers in the field of materials science who achieved the highest citation impact scores for their papers published since January 2000. State Department Profile  Office of Iraq Economic and Assistance Affairs Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs Suryanarayana Challapalli is serving as a senior science advisor in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, Office of Iraq Economic and Assistance Affairs. His main areas of focus have been to expand the U.S. – Iraq Science and Technology cooperation by identifying and developing priority research areas for Iraq, evaluating existing U.S. – Iraq University cooperation to determine viability of science and technology research and development opportunities in priority research areas, and identifying projects and grant opportunities for U.S. – Iraq university cooperation and coordinating preparation and submittal of competitive proposals. He is also planning to support and expand the existing professional organizations in Iraq by linking them with U.S.-based scientific organizations and promoting bilateral communications and cooperation.