Steven R. Schmid

Steven R. Schmid is the Belk‑Woodward Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Before joining UNC Charlotte, he spent nearly 30 years on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame. His teaching and research span manufacturing, machine design, and tribology. From 2016 to 2018, Professor Schmid served at the National Science Foundation as Program Director for the Manufacturing Machines and Equipment program and as Head of the Advanced Manufacturing Cluster. He earned his B.S. (with Honors) from the Illinois Institute of Technology and his M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Northwestern University. Schmid has received numerous honors, including the John T. Parsons Award (SME), the Newkirk Award (ASME), the SME Gold Medal, the David Dornfeld Manufacturing Innovation Award, three Kaneb Center Teaching Awards, the Ruth and Joel Spira Award for Excellence in Teaching, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manufacturing Engineering Society of Spain. He is a past president of the North American Manufacturing Research Institution (NAMRI, 2015-2016) and was the first Academic Fellow at the Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office within the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he contributed to the design of the Manufacturing USA program. Schmid is the author of more than 140 technical papers and co‑author of several widely used textbooks, including Fundamentals of Machine Elements, Fundamentals of Fluid Film Lubrication, Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, Schey's Tribology in Metalworking, and Manufacturing Engineering and Technology. He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.