Engineer Bruce LaMattina has joined the Charlotte Research Institute as director of research. Prior to the University, he was director of federal research relations development at Rutgers University.
LaMattina earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University, and he completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Delaware.
He has been a member of many professional associations, including the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the editorial board of Journal of Multifunctional Composites and the editorial board of Composites B Journal. He was named a National Research Council Mentor from 2009-11, and he received the 26th Army Science Conference Bronze Medal Award for the Third Best Paper Overall and the 26th Army Science Conference Best Paper Award for Force Protection in 2008.
A registered professional engineer (North Carolina), LaMattina has 21 years of experience that spans manufacturing, corporate research and development, government and academia. He has authored more than 25 journal articles, including two book chapters, one edited book and two journal special issues, as well as numerous conference publications. He also is active in professional societies and technical committees; he has organized more than 18 technical workshops and has presented 25-plus invited talks.
At Rutgers, LaMattina implemented strategies that maximized federally funded research that significantly enhanced the prestige and research standing of the university at the national level. His accomplishments included being directly responsible for generating more than 20 new research grants that exceeded $9 million based on an extensive network of Department of Defense (DoD) and non-DoD federal contacts and newly acquired industrial partnerships; he helped create a six-fold increase in the number of DoD Young Investigator Grants in just three years as compared to the entire number of grants obtained in the previous five years; and he created a seminar series that attracted 17 top-level stakeholders from the federal government and industry to Rutgers.