Ahmed Arabi Hassen, group leader of Composites Innovation at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), one of the highest honors bestowed by the organization.
ASNT Fellow status recognizes individuals who have made significant, sustained contributions to nondestructive testing and evaluation while advancing the profession through leadership, service and innovation.
Hassen has helped advance the use of nondestructive evaluation in composite manufacturing, enabling industry to more rapidly qualify new materials, processes and structures for critical applications.
“Major advances happen when experts from different disciplines come together to solve complex problems, and Ahmed has consistently demonstrated that approach throughout his career,” said Robert Wagner, associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Energy Science and Technology Directorate. “By combining expertise in composites, manufacturing and nondestructive evaluation, he has delivered innovations that strengthen U.S. competitiveness and helped move new technologies from the laboratory into practical use. His election as an ASNT Fellow reflects both the breadth of his technical impact and his leadership within the professional community.”
As leader of ORNL’s Composites Innovation Group, Hassen directs research in composite advanced manufacturing, characterization and qualification. He oversees the development of high-rate manufacturing methods and smart manufacturing strategies that help companies produce advanced composite structures more efficiently and accelerate their adoption in industry.
Most recently, Hassen led an ORNL team that received the 2026 SME Aubin Additive Manufacturing Case Study Award for pioneering the use of large-format additive manufacturing to create high-precision composite molds for advanced nuclear reactor construction. The project demonstrated a new approach to reducing construction costs and schedules for next-generation nuclear energy systems while maintaining stringent quality requirements.
In 2025, Hassen and collaborators received a CAMX Award for Composites Excellence in the Material and Process Innovation category for developing an innovative manufacturing approach for composite rocket nozzles using modular additive manufacturing and large-scale dissolvable tooling technologies. The work demonstrated how novel manufacturing methods can reduce production costs and complexity while enabling high-performance composite structures for aerospace applications.
“Nondestructive evaluation, or NDE, is far more than a tool for finding defects; it is the foundation that gives us the confidence to innovate,” said Hassen. “As additive manufacturing, automation, advanced composites and artificial intelligence continue to evolve, NDE is becoming an intelligent, integrated part of the manufacturing process rather than simply a final inspection step. That shift will help turn promising ideas into trusted, certifiable technologies while ensuring safety, reliability and public trust.”
Beyond his technical contributions, Hassen has served ASNT at every level of the organization: nationally as a member of the board of directors and chair of the Research Symposium, regionally as a regional director, and locally as chair of multiple sections. In these roles, he has helped shape the organization’s technical direction and research priorities while strengthening engagement across its communities. He has organized high-impact technical programs and advanced the adoption of emerging nondestructive testing technologies. In addition to fostering collaboration among academia, industry and government, he continues to mentor the next generation of professionals in the field.
Hassen has authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and holds 24 U.S. patents and patent applications. His honors include three R&D 100 Awards, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers’ Jud Hall Composites Manufacturing Award and election as an SME Fellow in 2021.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit https://energy.gov/science . — Tina M. Johnson