Professor
Director, OSU Energy Efficiency Center | Industrial Assessment Center

School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering
Oregon State University
Mail: 204 Rogers Hall
Office: 218A Dearborn Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331
Phone: 541-737-3122
Fax: 541-737-2600
Email: Karl.Haapala@oregonstate.edu

 

Karl R. Haapala is a Professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University, where he directs the Industrial Sustainability Lab and the OSU Energy Efficiency Center; His research addresses sustainable manufacturing challenges, including life cycle engineering methods, manufacturing process performance modeling, and engineering education. His work has appeared in more than 150 peer-reviewed chapters, proceedings, and journal articles. He has participated in over $38M in research from the Army, DOE, NIST, NSF, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Oregon BEST, the Oregon Metals Initiative, USDA, and industry, including Boeing, Benchmade, Blount, Caterpillar, HP Inc., Lam Research, Master Chemical, PGE, Sheldon Manufacturing, and Tillamook. He serves as Director of OSU's DOE Industrial Assessment Center and leads activities of the CESMII Western Smart Manufacturing Innovation Center satellite office at OSU. He has served in volunteer leader positions within ASME and SME, and has been inducted into the honor societies of Pi Tau Sigma, Phi Kappa Phi, and Sigma Xi. He has been recognized by the NAE (2015 Frontiers of Engineering) and SME (2014 Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award and 2012, 2015; 2023 Distinguished Faculty Advisor Awards) and received Best Paper Awards from ASME (2015 & 2016 DFMLC), CIRP (2012 LCE), and ISSS (2017). He received a Fulbright-Tampere University Faculty Scholar Award for the 2019-2020 academic year to conduct research and teaching at the intersection of smart and sustainable manufacturing as applied to additive manufacturing processes. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering and his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics, as an NSF IGERT trainee, at Michigan Technological University.