Nannaji Saka
Dr. Nannaji Saka has been a Principal Research Scientist and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Now he is Vice President of Boston Tribology Associates, Cambridge, MA. He was graduated with a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering (in first class with honors) from Andhra University (India), with a master's degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology/Kanpur (India), and with a doctoral degree in Materials Science and Engineering from MIT (Cambridge, MA). After graduating with a doctoral degree, Dr. Saka joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT as a post-doctoral fellow to work with Prof. Nam P. Suh on the role of microstructure in the delamination wear of metals and alloys. Over the decades, he has collaborated with the distinguished tribologists Prof. Nam P. Suh and the late Prof. Ernest Rabinowicz, on a variety of tribological phenomena and manufacturing processes.
Dr. Saka is the co-editor of the proceedings of an international conference on the Fundamentals of Tribology held at MIT and published by the MIT Press. He has authored or co-authored over a hundred technical papers in tribology, mechanical behavior of materials, manufacturing processes, and drug delivery. Over the years, he has supervised ten bachelor's theses, twenty-five master's theses, eight doctoral theses, and has been a committee member of over twenty doctoral theses. While Dr. Saka has devoted much of his time to research and guidance, he has also lectured in both undergraduate and graduate classes, in summer school programs, and at institute-wide symposia. He has been a consultant in tribology and materials processing to several companies. He holds ten joint US patents on electrical contacts, gamma-ray tomography, micro-arc oxidation, and Chemical-Mechanical Polishing (CMP) and drug delivery (pending).
Dr. Saka has been the principal or co-principal investigator of numerous projects sponsored by several US government agencies (DARPA, NSF, ONR and DTNSRDC) and by many industrial firms (Aeroquip Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, Draper Laboratory, Hoya Electronics, INEL, Intel, Kendall, New England Instruments, Omron, Pratt & Whitney, Samsung, Semiconductor Research Corporation, Silicon Valley Group, Teradyne, and others). Dr. Saka has been an associate editor of the journals ASME Press Series on Advances in Information Storage Systems, and STLE Tribology Transactions. He regularly reviews technical papers for the international journals ASME Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, Journal of Tribology, Tribology Transactions, and Wear.
He has been a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), the American Society of Metals International (ASMI), Electrochemical Society (ECS), American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and Sigma Xi. He is a life member of the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM).