Carl Zweben, Ph. D.
Composites and Advanced Thermal Materials Consultant
E-mail: [email protected]
Dr. Zweben, now an independent consultant on composites and advanced thermal materials, was for many years Advanced Technology Manager and Division Fellow at GE Astro Space, which was acquired by Lockheed Martin. He directed the Composites Center of Excellence of the seventeen-department GE Aerospace Group, and led the Lockheed Martin Space and Strategic Missiles Sector Composite Structures Center of Excellence Team. He also was responsible for management of all Astro Space structural, mechanical and thermal technologies. Dr. Zweben has chaired design, proposal and mission success reviews and served on corporate Blue Ribbon and Manufacturing Facility Review panels. He has conducted market studies for companies and government agencies, and consulted on acquisitions and joint ventures for GE Corporate Headquarters and GE Plastics. He also has served as an expert witness. He previously held positions at Du Pont, Materials Sciences Corporation and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Dr. Zweben was the first, and one of only two winners of both the GE One-in-a-Thousand and Engineer-of-the-Year awards. He received the GE Outstanding Technical Presentation Award and chaired the GE Space Systems Division Structures and Materials Committee and the GE Aerospace Group Advanced Materials Panel. He was the GE Astro Space candidate for the Steinmetz Award.
Dr. Zweben’s academic affiliations have included: Technical Advisor, Georgia Institute of Technology NSF Electronic Packaging Research Center; Adjunct Professor, University of Maine Department of Civil Engineering, Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center; Visiting Advisory Board, Drexel University Department of Materials Engineering; consultant to the University of Delaware Center for Composite Materials and External Ph. D. Examiner, University of Surrey, UK.
Dr. Zweben received degrees in Civil Engineering (structures) and Applied Mechanics from the Cooper Union, Columbia University and Polytechnic University.
Dr. Zweben has over 40 years of commercial and aerospace experience in polymer matrix-, metal matrix-, ceramic matrix- and carbon/carbon composite materials technology, including: design, manufacturing, product development, material development and characterization, test method development, material and structural testing and basic research in micromechanics and material behavior. He also has served as an expert witness.
Dr. Zweben pioneered a wide range of commercial and aerospace composite applications, including spacecraft and aircraft structures, rocket motor cases, machine components, electronic and optoelectronic thermal management and packaging,
optomechanical systems, marine structures, Civil Engineering structures, automobiles, rapid transit vehicles, robots, flywheels, wind turbines, antennas, pressure vessels, weapon systems and sporting goods. Since the early 1980s, he has been particularly active in advanced thermal management materials, and was the first to use Al/SiC in microelectronic and optoelectronic packaging.
Dr. Zweben is a Life Fellow of ASME International (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers), a Fellow of ASM International (formerly the American Society for Materials) and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering (SAMPE), an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and a Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has been a Distinguished
Lecturer for AIAA, ASME International and the Joint Center for Materials Science of New Mexico (a consortium including Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, and others). Dr. Zweben has received awards for his work from NASA, Materials Engineering and SAMPE. He was an AIAA Greater Philadelphia Chapter Aerospace Professional of the Year. Dr.
Zweben also received the Engineer of the Year award for AIAA Region 1, which includes states from Maine to Virginia, and has 10,000 of the society’s 40,000 members.
Dr. Zweben has to his credit over 350 books, articles, lectures and short courses. He has presented well over 100 invited lectures at numerous universities, conferences, industrial organizations and government symposia, including the AIAA 50th Anniversary "Learn from the Masters" Series, and the SME Manufacturing Insights videotape series. He presented the Composites Tutorial Lecture at the 1988 ASM World Materials
Congress, and was an invited Main Lecturer at the NATO Advanced Studies Institute on Mechanics of Composite Materials and Structures at Troia, Portugal. He has presented papers and short courses in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa.
Dr. Zweben is Co-Editor-in-Chief, with Dr. Anthony Kelly, CBE, FRS, of the Pergamon/Elsevier 6-volume “Comprehensive Composite Materials”. He is a contributor to the MIT/Pergamon Press Encyclopedia of Material Science and Engineering, Concise Encyclopedia of Composite Materials and Encyclopedia of Advanced Materials; the McGraw-Hill Composite Materials Handbook, Handbook of Plastics, Elastomers and Composites and Handbook of Materials Selection; the John Wiley Mechanical Engineers’ Handbook second edition. He is a Section Editor and
chapter author of the ASM Engineered Materials and Electronic Materials Handbooks, and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Encyclopedia of Condensed Matter Physics. Dr. Zweben was one of the original authors of the University of Delaware Composites Design Guide. Other professional activities have included: Founding Member and Member-at-Large of the American Society for Composites; Member-at-Large, ASTM Committee D30 on High-Modulus Fibers and Composites; Executive Committee, US-Japan Conference on Composites; Member, ASCE Structural Plastics Research Council; Editorial Board, Journal of Composite Technology and Research; Member of the International Advisory
Editorial Board of the international journal, Composites; Part A: applied science and manufacturing, Member of the International Editorial Board of Advanced Performance Materials; Editorial Board, Journal of Materials: Design and Applications, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part L.
Dr. Zweben has directed and lectured at over 200 classroom, satellite broadcast, videotape, and CD-ROM short courses in the US, Europe and Asia, reaching well over 4000 participants. Course sponsors have included ASME, ASM, IEEE, IMAPS (the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society), SPIE (the International Society for Optical Engineering), Power Electronics Technology Conference, NEPCON, Instar
Engineering and Consulting, Launchspace, UCLA, Cambridge University, the University of Maryland, the University of Surrey, and many Fortune 500 companies. His videotape and CD-ROM short courses have been distributed internationally. Dr. Zweben was awarded the UCLA Extension Certificate of Appreciation for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Zweben has provided technical services to many national, state agencies and quasi-governmental organizations, including: National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council; U. S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment; Bureau of Mines; Department of Defense; U. S. Air Force, Army and Navy; and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He helped to found, and served as Technical Advisor to, the DOD Metal Matrix Composites Information Analysis Center. He served as Chairman of the Industrial Advisory Board, State of Virginia Center of Innovative Technology, and Institute for Materials Science and Engineering. He represented GE on the State of Pennsylvania Composites Technology Forum. Clients have included: Nokia, Coherent Laser, Delphi Electronics, Gentex, Lumileds, Themis Computer, The Electro-Optics Center, Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Composite Optics, Boeing, Hughes, General Dynamics, GE Aircraft Engines, Lockheed Martin R&D
Center, Northrop Grumman Laser Systems, E-Systems, ITT Aerospace/Communications, COM DEV, Beech Aircraft, Brunswick Corporation,
Advanced Diamond, Inc., BP-Amoco, Ciba-Geigy, Cytec Carbon Fibers, GE Advanced Materials, Hitco Carbon Composites, k Technology Corporation, Poco Graphite, Powdermet, Rogers Corporation, Reynolds Metals Company, Skeleton Technologies, Zyvex Corporation, Advanced Thermal and Environmental Concepts, Inc., Beacon Power, Laser Technology, Inc., Kulicke and Soffa, MRSI, Launchspace, Northern Research and Engineering Corporation, A. R. Wilfley & Sons, Inc., Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, NUMAR Corporation (a Halliburton Company), Princeton University High Energy Physics Group, Utility Development Corporation, DE Technologies, DOD Advanced Materials and Processes Technology Information Analysis Center (AMPTIAC), US Air Force, US Army, NASA and other organizations.