Dr. Richard Billo serves as the founding director of the Kummer Institute Center for Advanced Manufacturing and as a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri University of Science and Technology. His role includes developing the new center’s mission, vision, and strategic plan and facilitating collaboration with numerous research centers and industrial consortia.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Billo was the associate vice president for research and professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Before Notre Dame, he held numerous leadership and faculty positions at the University of Texas at Arlington, including serving as interim associate vice president for research, professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, and co-director of the Center for Renewable Energy Science and Technology.

Dr. Billo's career also includes significant positions at Oregon State University, the University of Pittsburgh, Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, and the Computer Integrated Manufacturing Systems Research Center at Arizona State University. His areas of research expertise span advanced manufacturing, industrial information systems, metallurgy and liquid fuels processes.

Dr. Billo holds a doctorate degree in industrial engineering from Arizona State University, which he earned in 1989. His other academic credentials include a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Arizona State University, a master’s degree in psychology from the University of the Pacific, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from West Virginia University. With nearly four decades of experience in academia and research, Dr. Billo's appointment heralds a new era for Missouri S&T and the Kummer Institute's initiatives.