W. J. Meng received his BS degree in Physics in 1982 and his PhD degree in Applied Physics in 1988, both from Caltech. He was a postdoc at Argonne National Laboratory from 1988 to 1989 and a staff research scientist at the General Motors/Delphi R&D Center from 1989 to 1999. Since 1999, he has been a faculty member with Louisiana State University, where he is currently the Smiley and Bernice Romero Raborn Endowed Chair and Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research spans topics concerning solid-state phase transformations, vapor phase growth of ceramic and metal thin films, nanostructured coatings and surface engineering, mechanical testing at small length scales, and microfabrication and assembly of metal-based structures and devices. He was elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. From 2015 to 2021, he served as the scientific lead for a U.S. National Science Foundation program awarded to the state of Louisiana to establish the Consortium for Innovation in Manufacturing and Materials, with focus on advanced manufacturing technologies and associated materials research.