Alumnus Helps Buck National Trend in Graduate Student Funding
With support from alumni, including the founder of Ventana Research Corp., the UA College of Engineering has established the NextGen Fund for U.S. graduate students to keep the nation globally competitive.
After earning a bachelor's degree in 1990, John Lombardi worked at Norton/TRW Ceramics in Massachusetts. There, staff members familiar with the University of Arizona materials science and engineering faculty encouraged him to attend the UA for graduate study.
With then-professor Paul Calvert as his adviser, Lombardi gained direct experience with rapid prototyping and 3D printing materials development and earned his MS and PhD in materials science and engineering in 1995 and 1996, respectively.
The research experience and PhD in particular have served him well as an inventor, researcher and entrepreneur, said the president and CEO of Ventana Research Corp., the Tucson-based company he launched in 2001.