HIGHLIGHTS ADVANCED MATERIALS & PROCESSES | MAY 2026 41 development of an ASM education course that has run continuously for over 20 years. Robot Wars in the City of Materials was written as a companion to the City of Materials website developed by the ASM Materials Education Foundation. He has also collaborated with NASA as a reviewer and contributor for an AIAA book on additive manufacturing in 2022. As an active member of ASM for 49 years, Dennies started in the student chapter at California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo where he was chapter chair. He served on the ASM Board of Trustees (2006-2009). He also served as an ASM Materials Education Foundation trustee (2004-2006), where he championed the Materials Camp program. He initiated and helped develop the Master Teacher training program and then became a Master Teacher himself. Dennies has participated in more than 50 Materials Camps including the very first Eisenman Materials Camp in 2000. A dedicated educator of materials science, Dennies has also been an instructor and developer of ASM courses for over 25 years, generating over $2M in revenue for the Society. He is an active contributor to many ASM events such as IMAT and AeroMat and has participated in the ASM annual event and conference each fall for over 35 years as a speaker, session chair, and organizer. Dennies played a key role on the Technical Advisory Board that started in 2017 to create the IMAT event and continues on the IMAT programming committee. In January 2026, he organized the first ever Failure Analysis Society Summit on Fatigue and Fracture. Dennies has been a member of three of ASM’s affiliate societies for decades: the International Metallographic Society (IMS), the Failure Analysis Society (FAS), and the Heat Treating Society (HTS). He is a past president of both IMS and FAS. He contributed as a handbook editor and author to the ASM Handbooks on Failure Analysis Volume 11 and 11A published in 2021. Dennies has served on 15 different ASM society journals, committees, and councils, including the Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention editorial board, Membership committee, Chapter Council, and the Residual Stress Technical Committee. At the local level, Dennies has served on the LA Chapter executive committee for over 35 years. He organized, funded, and taught the LA Chapter Materials Camp for Teachers for 13 years. In 2025, he led the effort to create the LA Chapter’s 100-year anniversary celebration. Dennies has been the recipient of numerous technical and volunteer awards including the William Hunt Eisenman award (2024), Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention Editor’s Choice Article award (2021), George A. Roberts Award (2011), Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention Best Paper Award (2010), Engineering Achievement Award by the Orange County Engineering Council (2005), Allan Ray Putnam Service Award (2004), ASM Fellow (2002), and ASM Instructor of Merit Award (2002). He was awarded the distinction of ASM Scholar while he was in college in 1978. Lastly, Dennies is also a recipient of the NASA Silver Snoopy Award for his contributions to the International Space Station. Dr. Tirumalai Sudarshan, FASM Senior Vice President-Elect Tirumalai Sudarshan (Suds) is the president of Materials Modification Inc. He received his B.Tech. from IITM and M.S. and Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. He worked as a senior metallurgist at Ashok Leyland on materials testing, failure analysis and surface modification, and heat treatment techniques and later as the director of R&D at Synergistic Technologies in Virginia on electrodeposition of cutting tools and gun barrels. For the past 40 years, he has been developing new technologies and applications related to surface engineering and nanotechnology with applications in numerous fields. He has been active in various committees and is currently the chair of the ASM-IIM Lectureship Committee. Sudarshan chaired the Surface Engineering Critical Technology sector at ASM and was founding chair of the Surface Modification Committee at TMS. He has been a member of IMR, JMEP, AM&P, and numerous awards committees at ASM International where he previously served as a trustee from 2014-2017. Sudarshan was the recipient of a Design News Award and R&D 100 award for the microwave plasma technique (Nanogen) and the Plasma Pressure Compaction (P2C) technique, as well as receiving the SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer award. He served on numerous committees for the NSF, NIH, U.S. Army, Michigan Economic Development Council, National Research Council, Ohio Third Frontier, ASM International, and TMS. Sudarshan has served on the technical advisory boards of numerous companies over the past two decades. He is currently the editor of two journals, Materials and Manufacturing Processes and Surface Engineering, and previously worked on Materials Technology. He is a Fellow of ASM, IFHTSE, and IMMM, as well as a Distinguished Alumnus of IITM and previous member of the National Materials Advisory Board. He is the coauthor of over 200 publications and coeditor of 36 books, holder of 38 patents, and has presented over 60 plenary and keynote lectures around the world. Sudarshan BOARD NOMINEES
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