Dr. Wojciech Z. Misiolek is The Loewy Institute Professor and former Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department (2016-2023) as well as Director of the Loewy Institute at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA. He holds MS (1980) and DSc (1985) degrees in metallurgy from the AGH University of Krakow, Poland. In 2016, he was awarded the title of Professor of Engineering Sciences by the President of the Republic of Poland.
He began his American career in 1987 as a Visiting Scientist at the Institute for Metal Forming at Lehigh University. He then spent nine years (1988-1997) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in various research and teaching positions. He was Co-Director of the Aluminum Processing Program, an industrial consortium focused on the scientific and engineering needs of the aluminum extrusion industry. In 1997, he became a faculty member of the Materials Science and Engineering Department and was appointed Director of the Institute for Metal Forming, which today bears the name Loewy Institute. During his tenure at Lehigh, he has been invited to serve as a Visiting Professor or Guest Scientist at universities and research institutes in Australia, Austria, Germany, Norway, and Poland. Together with his graduate and undergraduate students and the research staff of the Loewy Institute, he conducts research in materials processing and manufacturing, focusing on physical and numerical modeling of deformation processing and powder metallurgy, including 3-D printing of metals.
He is a recipient of numerous awards from ASM International, namely the William Hunt Eisenman Award (2020), the ASM Bradley Stoughton Award, Lehigh Valley Chapter (2006), Fellow of the ASM International (2005), and the Alfred H. Geisler Memorial Award, Eastern New York Chapter (1995). In addition, he was recognized with the M. Schneider Memorial Award from Wire Association International (2017), and the Innovation Award - Academic Partner Award, Ben Franklin of NE Pennsylvania (2004).
Łukasz Rauch, DSc, PhD (Eng.), Professor at AGH University of Krakow currently serves as the Deputy Dean for Research and Cooperation at the Faculty of Metals Engineering and Industrial Computer Science, and is a member of the AGH Senate. He headed the Department of Applied Computer Science and Modelling (2016-2020) and the Laboratory of Computational Technology Applications at ACC Cyfronet AGH (2020-2025).
His research spans the boundary between applied computer science and materials engineering – from methodologies for efficient multiscale computations on heterogeneous hardware architectures (CPU, GPU, accelerators), through integrated platforms for computer-aided technology design, to cyber-physical systems and digital twins operating today in production plants. He led the IT work packages in the European projects VirtRoll and Proteus (Research Fund for Coal and Steel), collaborating with ArcelorMittal Global R&D and CEIT San Sebastián, among others, and was the initiator and scientific leader of a cyber-physical system supporting production at the CMC Poland electric steelmaking plant in Zawiercie, combining computer vision, distributed sensor layers, and machine learning.
He has authored and co-authored more than 200 publications in journals and conference papers. A long-standing organizer and chairman of the international KomPlasTech conference, he was the main organizer of NUMIFORM 2023 and serves on the Board of Directors of the NUMIFORM association. He has supervised doctoral dissertations and more than 100 diploma theses, and was awarded the Medal of the Commission of National Education (2024). He combines his academic career with many years of experience in the IT industry, which enables him to effectively transfer advanced numerical modelling methods from laboratory research to real industrial applications.
