Groeber succeeds IMR founder Steven Ringel, Distinguished University Professor and Neal A. Smith Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, who launched IMR in 2006. Ringel will continue to work closely with the institute in his role as senior associate vice president for Research within Ohio State’s Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge (ERIK), which he was appointed to in November 2025.
For 20 years, IMR has facilitated and coordinated research activities and infrastructure related to materials and manufacturing at Ohio State to guide the university’s materials-allied research enterprise to be among the best in the nation. IMR brings together a large interdisciplinary community consisting of 260 faculty members across 12 colleges, all of whom are engaged in research and innovation across the materials and manufacturing continuum, including IMR’s signature research areas.
“What excites me most about IMR is the community it has cultivated,” Groeber said. “We have a great breadth of expertise in areas including emergent materials, AI, semiconductors, structural materials and energy technologies, and IMR brings those experts together, while providing access to world-class shared facilities and opportunities for collaboration.”
As director, Groeber will continue IMR’s mission to drive Ohio State’s innovation ecosystem, as well as support and connect researchers from across the university to pursue major interdisciplinary research opportunities and create new knowledge.
“IMR is focused on empowering faculty and research staff at Ohio State,” he said. “The institute has program managers and proposal development staff who help researchers pursue their extraordinary research.”
In addition to overseeing multiple seed grant programs, Groeber will guide IMR’s academic and industry collaborations, as well as its centers of excellence and core research infrastructure. That infrastructure includes the 30,000-square-foot Nanotech West Lab, which houses state of the art semiconductor nanofabrication, processing and device characterization facilities, the Semiconductor Epitaxy and Analysis Laboratory, which is one of the largest collections of materials epitaxy capabilities in the U.S., the recently established 25,000-square-foot Battery Cell R&D Center, which is a nationally unique center for next generation battery R&D and full-scale industry translation, and multiple core facilities such as the Nanosystems Lab, which supports research on emergent materials and novel phenomena.
Groeber’s research spans materials science and manufacturing, with a focus on how manufacturing processes influence material performance and, more recently, the integration of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital engineering to create intelligent manufacturing systems.
A long-time Ohio State Buckeye, he earned his degrees in materials science and engineering before spending 11 years at the Air Force Research Laboratory and returning to Ohio State as a faculty member in 2018. Having witnessed and contributed to the evolution of IMR throughout his career, he played a key role in expanding the institute’s mission to include manufacturing, helping shape what is now the Institute for Materials and Manufacturing Research.
“After founding IMR 20 years ago, this is a bittersweet moment for me,” Ringel said. “I have loved every minute of leading IMR, getting to work with the amazing faculty, staff and students, and learning so much from them all. IMR is great because its people are extraordinary and watching the growth of our community’s impact regionally, nationally and globally has been quite a ride. I am now excited for IMR’s next chapter under Mike Groeber’s leadership. Mike is the right leader at the right time, and having had the opportunity to work with Mike closely over the past few years has made it obvious that the IMR is in great hands; the future is bright!”
