Norbert Meyendorf Editor

Dr. Norbert Meyendorf retired in Fall 2018 as Deputy Director of the Center for Nondestructive Evaluation and Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Before joining ISU in 2016 he was Branch Director at the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing IZFP and later IKTS. Additionally, he was Director of the International University of Dayton / Fraunhofer Research Center at the School of Engineering at the University of Dayton, and Program Director of the Master Program “Nondestructive Testing, M. Sc. (NDT)” at the Dresden International University (DIU) between 2011 and 2015.

Norbert Meyendorf continues to be active as Adjunct Professor for Micro- and Nano-NDE at the University of Dresden and the Department for Chemical, Materials and Bioengineering, University of Dayton. He is the author or co-author of more than 300 peer-reviewed journal articles, contributions to edited proceedings, technical reports, and numerous oral presentations at international venues. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation and has edited several books and conference proceedings. Additionally, Meyendorf is the founder and chair of two expert committees of the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP); namely, “Structural Health Monitoring” and “Materials Diagnostics”. Between 2016 and 2018 he reorganized and directed the American Society for Nondestructive Testing, Iowa Sectionö

Dr. Nathan Ida is Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Akron in Akron, Ohio where he has been since 1985. His current research interests are in the areas of electromagnetic nondestructive testing and evaluation of materials at low and microwave frequencies with particular emphasis on theoretical issues, on all aspects of modeling and simulation and on related issues stemming from research in NDE. He received his B.Sc. in 1977 and M.S.E.E. in 1979 from the Ben-Gurion University in Israel, and his Ph.D. from Colorado State University in 1983. He has held visiting and/or adjunct positions at various institutions including Nasa Glen Research Center, The Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Florianopolis, Brazil, McGill University in Montreal, Canada, Electricite De France, Paris, France, The University of Lille, Lille, France and Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. 

Dr. Ida has published extensively, in over 400 publications, on electromagnetic field computation, parallel and vector algorithms and computation, nondestructive testing of materials, surface impedance boundary conditions, and sensing. He has written 9 books, amongt them a textbook on engineering electromagnetics, now in its fourth edition, and a textbook on sensing and actuation, now in its second edition. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the American Society of Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), a Fellow of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES) and a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Technology (IET). Dr. Ida teaches Electromagnetics, Antenna Theory, Electromagnetic Compatibility, Sensing and Actuation as well as Computational Methods and Algorithms.

Dr. Ripi Singh is a freelance innovation and strategy coach, specializing in preparing his clients for the upcoming Fourth Industrial Revolution. He boasts decades of experience in creating new technologies and products, and fostering a culture of innovation through academia, small business, and Fortune 500 companies in India, Germany, and the USA. He holds a Masters Degree in Strategic Thinking from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has been recognized with the President of India Cash Prize for Research, the National Technical Education award, as well as with uninterrupted scholarships for 15 years from throughout high school in India to his post-doctoral studies at Georgia Tech. 

Dr. Singh serves on the Council of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, the most prestigious body serving the needs of the state, as well as on the Advisory Boards of the Universities of Hartford and New Haven. He is also an instructor at the Caltech Center for Technology and Management Education. His most notable roles as of late include serving on the US delegation on ISO 56000 for Innovation Management, and as Chair of the NDE 4.0 committee for the ASNT.

Dr. Johannes Vrana, born in 1978, studied physics at the Technical University of Munich, Germany and completed his PhD in 2008 at the Saarland University on the subject of thermographic testing. He then worked for Siemens Power and Gas in Orlando, USA as well as in Berlin and Munich, Germany, and was Chairman of the Siemens NDE Council. In addition to worldwide harmonization of NDE specifications and the introduction of statistical tools, he was responsible for the development of automated NDE and the synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT). In 2015 he received an Honorable Mention for Ingenuity at the U.S. Excellence Awards and, in 2016, he received 4th prize for Ingenuity at the Werner von Siemens Awards.

In 2015 Dr. Vrana founded his own company. Vrana GmbH, based in Rimsting, Germany and specializing in NDE consulting and solutions, R&D, and software development. Moreover, he is chairman of the ICNDT (International Committee for NDT) Specialist International Group “NDE 4.0“, of the ASNT (American Society for NDT) German Section, and of the DGZfP (German Society for NDT) subcommittees “Interfaces and Documentation for NDE 4.0“ and “Automated Ultrasonic Testing”. In 2019 he was awarded with the DGZfP application award for the implementation of SAFT into serial production of large rotor forgings.