A professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University at Buffalo -- SUNY, Dr. Kemper Lewis teaches and conducts research in the areas of mechanical design, system optimization, and decision modeling. As a researcher and consultant, he has worked with companies and federal agencies on a wide range of engineering design problems. Dr. Lewis received his B.S. in mechanical engineering and B.A. in mathematics from Duke University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has served as associate editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. He has also served on the ASME Design Automation Executive Committee and on the National Academies Panel on Benchmarking the Research Competitiveness of the United States in Mechanical Engineering. In addition, he has worked as the Executive Director of the New York State Center for Engineering Design and Industrial Innovation. Dr. Lewis has received awards in recognition of his teaching and research from the Society of Automotive Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the National Science Foundation.