Karl Haapala
Dr. Karl Haapala is a Professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, where he leads the Industrial Sustainability Laboratory. His research addresses sustainable manufacturing challenges, including life cycle engineering, manufacturing process performance modeling, and sustainable engineering education. He has participated in over $39M in research from government agencies, national labs, and industry as PI or co-PI. His work has appeared in more than 180 peer-reviewed proceedings and journal articles. He has received four best paper awards and has been recognized through university and international-level awards, including the OSU Industry Partnering Award, OSU Graduate Mentoring Award, and SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. He received the 2024 ASME Kos Ishii-Toshiba award for sustained and meritorious contributions to design for manufacturing and the life cycle. In 2019-2020, he was a recipient of a Fulbright-Tampere University US Scholar Award. He previously served as Chair of the Life Cycle Engineering (Manufacturing Engineering Division) and of the Design for Manufacturing and Life Cycle (Design Engineering Division) technical committees of ASME. Dr. Haapala directs the OSU Energy Efficiency Center and U.S. DOE Industrial Training and Assessment Center, which provide technical assistance and workforce training for manufacturing industry.