Celebrating the Career and Retirement of Professor Kamlakar “Raju” Rajurkar
The manufacturing community celebrated the retirement of Professor Kamlakar “Raju” Rajurkar, whose career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has spanned decades of pioneering research, leadership, mentorship, and service. A retirement celebration was held on April 29, 2026, at the Scott Engineering Center, recognizing his many contributions to manufacturing engineering and to generations of students and colleagues.
Rajurkar joined Nebraska in 1983 and went on to become a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and founding director of the Center for Nontraditional Manufacturing Research. His research helped advance electrical discharge machining, electrochemical machining, ultrasonic machining, and other nontraditional manufacturing processes across macro-, micro-, and nanoscales. He also served as program director for Manufacturing Machines and Equipment at the National Science Foundation from 1999 to 2002.
His impact has been recognized by many of the manufacturing community’s highest honors. In 2018, Rajurkar received the M. Eugene Merchant Manufacturing Medal of ASME/SME, which recognizes individuals who have significantly influenced the productivity and efficiency of manufacturing. ASME honored him for pioneering contributions to nontraditional machining used in the automotive, aerospace, and medical-device industries, particularly through process modeling, sensing, and control. He is also a Fellow of ASME, SME, and CIRP - The International Academy for Production Engineering.
For Michael Sealy, however, Rajurkar’s influence extends far beyond his research accomplishments and professional awards. Raju has been a mentor, colleague, and friend, providing guidance and perspective throughout Sealy’s development as a manufacturing researcher and faculty member. His willingness to share experience, introduce younger researchers to the manufacturing community, and offer advice has been as meaningful as his technical contributions.
One image captures that connection to manufacturing history particularly well: Raju has a photograph of himself with M. Eugene Merchant, one of the foundational figures of modern manufacturing science. For generations of engineering students, Merchant may first be encountered through the Merchant equation in a textbook - a relationship from what can sometimes seem like a distant era of machining research. Raju’s stories and experiences make that history much more tangible. He knew and met the people whose names became the equations, awards, and foundational ideas that manufacturing researchers still use today. Years later, Raju himself would receive the medal bearing Merchant’s name.
That continuity is an important part of his legacy. Raju helped connect generations of manufacturing researchers while simultaneously pushing the field into new areas of sensing, control, micro- and nanoscale processing, and advanced manufacturing. His influence will continue through the researchers and students he mentored and the professional community he helped build.
Congratulations Raju on an extraordinary career and a well-deserved retirement - and thank you for the mentorship, friendship, and example you have provided along the way.
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