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 Dr. Suryanarayana Challapalli worked in the Office of Near-Eastern Affairs (NEA) – Office of Iraq Economic and Assistance Affairs, where he focused on developing science and technology cooperation between the U.S. and Iraqi scientists. He was instrumental in identifying priority research areas for Iraq, encouraging U.S. and Iraq university cooperative efforts in the field of science and technology, and establishing a science and technology funding agency in Iraq. He was also responsible for creating, supporting, and expanding professional organizations in Iraq by linking them with U.S.-based scientific organizations. He interacted extensively with Iraqi governmental units in Washington, DC, Iraqi scientific diaspora in the U.S., and visiting Iraqi governmental delegations in reaching these goals. Dr. Challapalli travelled to Iraq to participate in meetings with officials from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and Ministry of Science and Technology and also University administrators and faculty members to formalize some of the collaborative programs. He also worked on accreditation of engineering programs in Iraq and in identifying projects and grant opportunities for bilateral cooperation. He was most actively involved in encouraging Iraqi scientists to submit research proposals to the PEER program.