Advanced Joining Processes

Lucas F.M. da Silva is a Full Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Porto (FEUP). He leads INEGI's Advanced Joining Processes Unit (AJPU), a 35-member team working on welded, plastic deformation, and adhesive joints, integrating mechanical characterization, fracture testing, analytical modeling, and finite element analysis. He has coordinated 35 research projects funded mainly by FCT and the European Commission. With 15 patents, his contributions also extend to practical innovations in joining processes. His publications include over 700 SCOPUS papers, approximately 23000 citations and an h-index of 74. His work has been recognized with awards such as the SAGE Best Paper Award, Donald Julius Groen Prize, FEUP Scientific Excellence Award (2013, 2018), and Pedagogical Excellence Award (2023). Prof. da Silva is editor-in-chief of multiple international journals and book series and organizes numerous international conferences on joining, materials, manufacturing, machine design, and engineering education. He is founder and president of the Portuguese Adhesion and Adhesives Association (EURADH member).

Mohamad S. El-Zein has been with John Deere for 30 years and is currently the Manager of Advanced Materials and Mechanics. He is also John Deere Fellow in Materials. Dr. El-Zein obtained his PhD in Engineering Mechanics with emphasis on carbon fiber reinforced composites from Virginia Tech in 1989. He leads the Advanced Joining Group (Welding, Adhesive, and Bolted Joints), the Advanced Materials Group, and the Mechanics Group at the Moline Technology Innovation Center. Dr. El-Zein also spent much of his career in modeling and simulation and has a deep knowledge of product verification and validation. He has published research on composites, modeling and simulation, fatigue, welding, heat treating, adhesives, and computational welding simulation and analysis, and also holds over 15 patents. Paulo Martins is Professor of Manufacturing, at the Instituto Superior Tecnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal. He is also Doctor Technices Honoris Causa of the Technical University of Denmark, and a Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP). He is co-author of six books, several international patents and over 350 papers in international journals and conferences. His main research area is manufacturing, specifically numerical and experimental-based development of forming and joining by forming processes.