Mary Kathryn Thompson is an expert and international thought leader in design, manufacturing, and product development. She has held faculty positions at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She is currently a professional author, developing a series of books on engineering design and analysis for Elsevier, and a staff engineer at GE Additive where she is developing next generation industrial 3D printers. Kate received her S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Kate’s research focuses on how to better develop and produce innovative and competitive products, processes, and systems in a world where technological complexity and the speed of technological evolution are constantly increasing. She has worked on projects in academia and industry at all scales from micro to mega. These include the design and analysis of RFID enabled products and systems, aquatic biomimetic robots, microfluidic packaging for micro chemical reactors, thermal packaging for commercial power electronics modules, dielectrophoretic cell sorters, arteriovenous grafts for dialysis patients, city-scale autonomous robotic systems for smart freight delivery in mega cities, and wind turbine nacelle structures. The learnings from these projects have been used to advance our understanding of engineering design theory and methodology, and to improve new product development and introduction processes.

Kate has done pioneering work in and across a variety of fields. She created the first finite element models of real measured surface topographies for the design and analysis of functional surfaces. She identified the need for Design as a research discipline in Civil and Environmental Engineering and established an international civil design research community. She is a leading scholar in the field of Axiomatic Design and has received numerous awards for this work. She has also received international recognition for her work in engineering design education, including the KAIST Grand Prize for Creative Teaching and the Republic of Korea Ministry of Education, Science and Technology Award for Innovation in Engineering Education. Kate is currently focused on improving our understanding of Design for Additive Manufacturing and broadening the discussion around Design for Manufacturing and Assembly.

Kate has published over 75 papers, edited 7 conference proceedings, published 1 textbook, and has a second book under contract. She serves on the editorial boards of 2 international journals and is a reviewer for numerous international journals and conferences. She is a member of ASME, IEEE, SME, CIRP, and the Design Society.