Dr. Soundar Kumara is Allen E. Pearce and Allen M. Pearce Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State. Dr. Kumara was recognized for his research in smart manufacturing systems, which spans more than three decades. His work is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning in real-time data analytics, sensor-based process monitoring, and graph analytics. This research has contributed to improvements in manufacturing as well as specific applications in health care, military logistics, and pharmaceutical sectors. Dr. Kumara was named an IISE fellow in 2006. He has served on IISE's Body of Knowledge governing board, which oversees the organization's repository of relevant industrial and systems engineering concepts, as well as on the editorial board of the journal IISE Transactions. He is also a fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 2021, Dr. Kumara received the David F. Baker Distinguished Research Award from the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). The award is given once annually to one IISE member in recognition of outstanding research throughout a career of accomplishments that broadly benefited practitioners, organizations, or other researchers. He has also won the Excellence in Research Award from ASME Computers & Infor- mation Engineering (CIE) division and was listed among the 20 most influential academics in smart manufacturing by the Society of Manufacturing Engineering. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence. 64 Ph.D. and 79 MS students have graduated under his guidance.