With the end of the year comes a unique opportunity to recognize the personalities who have most impacted the additive manufacturing industry: those behind the latest innovations, investments made, and most remarkable projects. 2020 was a special year in which 3D technologies found their place in the fight against coronavirus: the entire sector mobilized to develop solutions and meet the needs of our health personnel. Although it is hard not to talk about it at all, let us remember that 2020 was about more than the health crisis. 2020 is also a year during which additive manufacturing has strengthened its position as a method of producing finished parts and has attracted a good number of industrialists who have adopted 3D printing in a sustainable way by allocating dedicated resources. So which personalities made their mark on the 3D printing industry this year? 

Paul Gradl ’02 ’04M, Senior Propulsion Engineer, NASA
NASA is one of the largest agencies to have integrated additive manufacturing into its space projects. Their most recent project, so-called RAMPT (Rapid Analysis and Manufacturing Propulsion Technology), aims to incorporate additive manufacturing in the development of large rocket engines. Paul Gradl has been a senior propulsion engineer at NASA for more than 16 years and, on this occasion, was one of the leading researchers of the RAMPT project. With a promising initiative such as this, it is almost impossible to exclude Paul Gradl, and his team, from 2020’s list of influential personalities.

https://www.3dnatives.com/en/most-influential-personalities-additive-manufacturing-2020-291220204/