Dr. Radovan Kovacevic is a Herman Brown Chair Professor of materials and manufacturing engineering and director of the Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing and the Center for Laser-aided Manufacturing at Southern Methodist University. Before he joined SMU in Aug. 1997 he was an associate professor (1991-1993) and full professor (1993-1997) at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, an associate professor (1987-1990) at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, and more than 16 years a faculty at the University of Montenegro, Yugoslavia.

In September of 1999 he founded the Research Center for Advanced Manufacturing, as the first Research Center at the School of Engineering; and in 2005 he founded the Center for Laser-aided Manufacturing. The Centers support a variety of research and development activities in the areas of rapid prototyping and manufacturing, laser materials processing (welding, forming, surface modification, micro-machining), welding (including electrical arc welding, variable polarity plasma arc welding, friction stir welding), waterjet/abrasive waterjet materials processing, waterjet guided laser beam cutting technology, sensing and control of manufacturing processes, and numerical simulation of manufacturing processes and systems. He has provided his research team with, perhaps one of the best, university-based physical facilities in the country to carry out the research in number of cutting edge technologies.

Dr. Kovacevic's research has been supported by a number of leading corporations and foundations, including the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, NASA,the Army Research Laboratory,the Brown Foundation, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Raytheon, Co., Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Vought Aircraft Industries, Inc., General Motors, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, etc. He has to his credit seven U.S. patents, 15 invention disclosures, and he has authored and co-authored five books and over 430 technical papers.

Dr. Kovacevic is a Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the American Welding Society, as well as  he is a recipient of the 2000 Taylor Research Medal presented by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers for "significant published research leading to a better understanding of materials, facilities, principles and their application to improve manufacturing processes". He is recipient of a number of prestigious awards for his research and educational achievements. He was a Fulbright Foundation Scholar (USA), Alexander von Humboldt Scholar (Germany), and Carl Duisberg Scholar (Germany).