Election into the International Academy for Production Engineering, or CIRP, is a very exclusive honor. The total number of fellows worldwide is limited to 175 with a maximum of 20 per country.
Currently, there are a total of 15 fellows from the United States and five are faculty members at UNC Charlotte. By comparison, major engineering schools like MIT, Berkeley and Purdue have one fellow.
Robert Wilhelm, vice chancellor of research and economic development and professor of mechanical engineering and engineering science, is the latest UNC Charlotte researcher to be named a fellow of the academy, which is also known by its French acronym, CIRP.
Like Wilhelm, the other UNC Charlotte fellows are in the Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Science Department. They are Matt Davies, Chris Evans, Bob Hocken and Scott Smith.
Wilhelm, who also serves as executive director of Charlotte Research Institute, was elected at the recent CIRP 63rd General Assembly Meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark. The academy contributes to global economic growth and the well-being of society by promoting research and development in production engineering.
UNC Charlotte also recruited German CIRP fellow Gert Goch to come to Charlotte and join the faculty.
According to Smith, the total number of CIRP fellows at UNC Charlotte is the largest concentration at any university in the world.