Dr. Sanjay Sampath, is currently *Distinguished Professor* of Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook University (SUNY) and director of the Center for Thermal Spray Research ([www.sunysb.edu/ctsr](http://www.sunysb.edu/ctsr)) an interdisciplinary industry-university partnership in the field of thermal spray materials processing and surface engineering.  CTSR was created in 1996 through the National Science Foundation’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers. He received his Ph.D. degree from Stony Brook in Materials Science in 1989.  After graduating, he spent four years at GTE Sylvania involved in research, development, and processing of refractory metal compounds and composites.  Upon joining the faculty at Stony Brook University in 1993, Dr. Sampath has directed research efforts on various federal and industrially funded programs.  Under the auspices of the NSF Center, he directed a group of a dozen or so interdisciplinary faculty members towards fundamental understanding of thermal spray processes, materials and applications.  The self-sustaining Center (since 2005) is home to the Industrial *Consortium for Thermal Spray Technology* comprising of 35 leading companies aimed at knowledge transfer from fundamental research to applications.   He was also principal investigator on the DARPA Mesoscale Integrated Conformal Electronics (MICE) project enabling 3D printing of sensors via direct write thermal spray technology. Dr. Sampath has 180 journal publications to his credit, 13 patents and winner of several best paper awards.  He has advised more than 40 MS and PHD students over 20 post-doctoral fellows and more than 100 undergraduates. He received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for excellence in scholarship and creative activities in its inaugural year, was elected Fellow of ASM International, recipient of 2007 R&D 100 award for developing direct write technology  and was inducted as Fellow of the American Ceramic Society.  In 2011, he was recognized as a State University of New York Distinguished Professor, highest faculty designation of the SUNY system. In 2015 he was inducted into the Thermal Spray Society Hall-of-Fame.  In 2017 he received the Application to Practice Award from TMS the Materials Society. In 2019 he received the John Jeppson Award from American Ceramic Society and the 2020 Albert Sauveur Award from ASM International. In 2023 he was elected as Academician of the World Academy of Ceramics and receive the Rishi Raj Medal for Innovation and Commercialization from American Ceramic Society in 2024.