Alton D. Romig, Jr., BS '75, MS '77, PhD '79, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). 

Romig learned several critical skills while earning three engineering degrees from Lehigh.

“I feel very passionately that Lehigh made my success possible,” says Romig, who is vice president for Science & Technology and Partnerships and chief technology officer for Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M.

“I got a fine technical and scientific education at Lehigh; there’s no doubt about that. And I acquired several skills that have served me well throughout my career. First is the ability to build teams. Second, I learned strong communication skills, both oral and written.

“Third, I came to understand that engineering is all about solving problems for the benefit of society, and I learned to apply scientific tools to engineering problems.”

Romig earned a B.S. in metallurgy and materials science in 1975, an M.S. in metallurgy and materials engineering in 1977, and a Ph.D. in metallurgy and materials engineering in 1979.

He was cited by the National Academy of Engineering “for outstanding contributions to the science and technology of materials and for innovative research and development on defense systems.”

As Sandia’s vice president for science and technology, Romig leads the laboratories’ discretionary research activities and serves as chief scientist for the nuclear weapons program. He also supervises the partnership program with industry and academia. The programs he oversees employ 3,600 people.

The two major research areas for which Romig is responsible are nanotechnology and microsystems. Researchers in the second area are integrating microprocessors, microelectrical-mechanical systems (MEMS), microsensors and microcommunication software on a computer chip in an effort to develop the “next generation” of integrated circuits, which, Romig says, will be able to “sense, think, act and communicate.”

Other research for which Romig is responsible include materials and process sciences, optoelectronics, advanced manufacturing, computer science, modeling and simulation, and high-energy density physics.

Romig has written 160 technical publications and co-authored or edited three textbooks, including Principles of Analytical Electron Microscopy (1986). He also holds two patents and is a former president of ASM International (formerly the American Society for Metals).

Many of Romig’s recent papers discuss the commercialization of new technologies that disrupt the marketplace because they are radically different from the technologies they replace. One example of a “disruptive technology,” he says, is the photocopier, which replaced the old mimeograph.

Romig has returned frequently to Lehigh over the years to teach short courses at the university’s annual Microscopy School in June. The 33-year-old school, largest of its kind in the nation, is run by the department of materials science and engineering.

The National Academy of Engineering and its sister organizations – the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council – advise the nation’s leaders on policy matters involving science, technology and medicine. Election to the NAE is considered one of the highest honors accorded to engineers in the United States.  Academy membership honors those who have made “important contributions to engineering theory and practice, including significant contributions to the literature of engineering theory and practice,” and those who have demonstrated accomplishment in "the pioneering of new fields of engineering, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education,” according to the NAE.

Seventy-seven new members and nine foreign associates were elected to the NAE in February. Total U.S. membership now stands at 2,138, with 165 foreign associates.