NextFlex®, America’s Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) Manufacturing Institute, presented the sixth annual NextFlex Fellow Awards recognizing four individuals who have made significant contributions toward furthering the development of the FHE and advanced manufacturing ecosystem.
The winning fellows received this award for their work in expanding learning programs nationally, guiding development of human health monitoring projects, and leading advanced manufacturing and flexible electronics from a materials and industry perspective.
This year’s NextFlex Fellow Award winners are:
- Doyle Edwards, Director of Government Programs, Brewer Science. As a frequent collaborator with NextFlex, Doyle has been a champion of NextFlex within his own company as well as the wider FHE community. With NextFlex’s help, Doyle has helped Brewer Science advance their own manufacturing programs and capabilities.
- Joey Mead, PhD., Interim Associate Dean, University Professor, Co-Director of Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence; Deputy Director, NSF Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing; Center Director, SHAP3D at UMass Lowell. Joey serves both as a member of the Governing Council and as academic co-lead for the Materials Technical Working Group for NextFlex.
- Courtney Taylor, Ph.D., Vice President of Workforce and Economic Development, East Mississippi Community College. Courtney is single-handedly responsible for the success of FlexFactor® in Huntsville with the Alabama Community College System. This successful implementation directly led to the expansion of FlexFactor to five additional locations around the country: Columbia in South Carolina, New Orleans and Chalmette in Louisiana, and Cypress and Torrance in California. Now living in Mississippi, Dr. Taylor leads an innovative workforce and economic development program and has announced that they will soon implement a new FlexFactor program with East Mississippi Community College as a key supporter of the local ecosystem.
- Jeremy Ward, Ph.D., Advanced Development Team Leader, Soft-Matter Materials, Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate. Jeremy has been a strong supporter of NextFlex since its formation in 2015. He served as government co-lead of the Human Health Monitoring Technical Working Group until 2020.
“This is an exciting time for FHE and advanced manufacturing, as we drive forward towards commercialization of the technology,” said Dr. Malcolm Thompson, NextFlex executive director. “All four recipients have been instrumental in not only guiding and advising on this path, but helping to expand and advance the awareness, development and participation in this field.”
The NextFlex Fellows are shaping the future through their respective projects as well as through collaboration with NextFlex and its members, making their findings and successes available to the FHE community and driving innovation in flexible technology and the advanced manufacturing ecosystem supported by it.
About NextFlex
NextFlex, a DoD innovation institute established in 2015 as a public-private partnership formed through a cooperative agreement funded by Air Force Research Laboratory Cooperative Agreement numbers FA8650-15-2-5402 and FA8650-20-2-5506, is widely acknowledged as the pioneer of a new model of “next generation electronics manufacturing.” In collaboration with its consortium of 100+ members across industry, academia, the non-profit sector, and state, local and federal governments, NextFlex accelerates the development of Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE) and new additive manufacturing processes that are transforming the world of traditional electronics packaging. Since its formation, NextFlex’s elite team of thought leaders, educators, problem solvers and manufacturers have collectively facilitated manufacturing innovation, created a more sustainable manufacturing ecosystem and begun to narrow the current manufacturing workforce gap in the USA. For more information, visit www.nextflex.us and follow NextFlex on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
About Flexible Hybrid Electronics (FHE)
FHE gives everyday products the power of silicon ICs by combining them with new and unique printing processes and new materials. The result: lightweight, low-cost, flexible, conformable, stretchable and highly efficient smart products with innumerable uses for consumer, commercial and military applications.
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