David U. Furrer


Dr. David Furrer is the Senior Fellow Discipline Lead for the Materials and Processes Engineering organization at Pratt & Whitney. He is responsible for leading the Pratt & Whitney Materials Discipline Leaders and Materials Fellows in the development of technical strategy and the development/improvement of engineering standard work for all processes in the discipline. Dr. Furrer also supports the ongoing development, design, manufacturing, and aftermarket and service investigation-related materials projects. Additionally, Dr. Furrer oversees the overall discipline health and technical leadership, critical skills identification, and the Materials and Processes Fellows program, among other initiatives.

In addition to his role as Senior Fellow Discipline Lead, Dr. Furrer is also the Director of Pratt & Whitney Manufacturing Technologies, leading new and emerging manufacturing processes development and transition into production, including such technologies as conventional and novel machining, coating, cleaning, and additive manufacturing processes. As part of these efforts, he also manages a core tools and methods group aimed at development and application of materials and process modeling and simulation capabilities.

He has over 30 years of experience in the areas of aerospace materials engineering, including forging manufacture, and materials and process modeling. In addition to his role in the aerospace and forging industries, Dr. Furrer was previously an adjunct professor at the Milwaukee School of Engineering, where he taught materials and manufacturing technology courses within the Mechanical Engineering Department.

David received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a Ph.D. in Engineering from the Universität Ulm, Ulm Germany.

Dr. Furrer is currently the President of ASM-International, the materials information society.

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