DIRAN APELIAN

Co-Founder, Board Chairman

Diran Apelian, Sc.D.

Board Chairman

If physicians work under the Hippocratic Oath, then engineers work under the charge to solve problems for the good of humanity. Diran, an engineer, and mentor at his core, has made solving problems his life’s work and has inspired and partnered with student-innovators and colleagues to address some of our most pressing challenges through technology, innovation and with human capital – talent.

The 21st century faces many challenges, the most pressing being sustainable development with a populated planet reaching 10 billion in the next 3 decades. It is the engineering community’s responsibility to craft wholistic responses with sustainability and renewal as the pivot point of innovation. Progress and sustainability must become co-mutual if we seek an inhabitable future. Solvus Global was established to provide the platform where talent and opportunities come together to make an impact.

Solvus Global and the studio model for innovation is the brainchild of Aaron Birt, Sean Kelly, and Diran Apelian. The platform they founded has attracted students-turned change makers (Joe Heelan, Emily Molstad, Caitlin Walde, and many others). Diran offers Solvus Global strategic direction and connections and serves as Chairman of the Board.

Diran could self-identify with his ranking titles (Distinguished Professor- UCI, Director- ACRC, Provost Emeritus- WPI, Founding Director- MPI) but he prefers the identifiers: facilitator, coach, innovator. He launched the ACRC research consortium in 1984 to link the best in engineering and science with the manufacturing needs of the metals processing industry. Today, the ACRC is one of the largest industry alliances in North America and a model for finding best practice solutions through academic research. Diran established with ASM the Center for Heat Treating Excellence in 1999 and established the Center for Materials Recovery and Recycling (CR3), an NSF center, a decade later. Diran’s work as a pioneer in metal processing has earned him inductions into the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), National Academy of Inventors (NAI), The Armenian Academy of Sciences, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, and The European Academy of Sciences. He has a BS from Drexel University, and an ScD from MIT. He is past president of TMS, and past president of the ASM Foundation.

Diran is proud to say that he has solved more problems through kindness and love than through equations and technical solutions. Relationships and caring for each other influences his day to day decisions more than anything else.