Prof. Shiv G. Kapoor is GrayceWicall Gauthier Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. For nearly 40 years, Professor Kapoor has been making extraordinary and pioneering contributions to manufacturing engineering through his published scholarly literature, technical writing, research, and teaching. He has maintained an active research and graduate education program in the areas of modeling of manufacturing systems and quality engineering. His work on the micro/meso-scale manufacturing and factory of the future has set a significant milestone in micro and precision machine tool design arena. He has published more than 350 journal and conference articles, many book chapters and holds several patents. The sheer volume of Professor Kapoor’s published work in his area of manufacturing expertise speaks to his credibility and international prominence. He has given numerous invited presentations both academic as well as industrial, keynote/plenary addresses at major international conferences. He has sustained very high levels of productivity, and his papers are continually referenced by practitioners in academia and industry.