Laine Mears is the BMW SmartState Endowed Chair of Automotive Manufacturing, Professor and founding faculty member in the Automotive Engineering department at Clemson University. He teaches and conducts research in manufacturing quality estimation, Intelligent Machining Systems, manufacturing process design and control, and manufacturing equipment diagnostics, at the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research. Current efforts are in expanding the Multimaterial Joining Lab and growing a new Center of Automotive Assembly. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed articles, and is the recipient of the NSF CAREER award, SAE Ralph Teetor Educational Award, the South Carolina Governor’s Young Researcher Award for Excellence in Scientific Research, and the IMECHE George Stephenson Gold Medal and Thatcher Bros. Prize. He currently directs the Clemson Vehicle Assembly Center and the NSF THINKER Research Traineeship Program.

In addition to academic experience, Dr. Mears has over 10 years in industry, holding positions with Hitachi Automotive and SKF Bearings as both Manufacturing Engineer and Engineering Manager in high-volume precision manufacturing environments. Applicable work in industry includes leading quality implementation teams for QS-9000 and IATF-16949 quality systems, power optimization of hard machining processes, and startup of a new bulk deformation rolling process.  Dr. Mears has a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Virginia Tech (1993) and M.S. (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Tech.  He is a Fellow of both the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and SME, and a Senior Member of the American Society for Quality.  He is a Certified Manufacturing Engineer, ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), BMW Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, and licensed Professional Engineer.

Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006, Mechanical Engineering
M.S., Georgia Institute of Technology, 2001, Mechanical Engineering
B.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute, 1993, Mechanical Engineering