Lighter, stronger: He makes the metals of tomorrow

Breakthrough by breakthrough, Alan Luo is shaving pounds off cars and trucks. Airplanes. Even smartphones are more efficient due to his research.

From Luo’s labs across Ohio State’s campus, he produces the strongest, lightest metal alloys the world has ever seen. And he’s guiding new generations of students along the way, engineers who will spread his wizardry far and wide.

“I want to deliver value to society,” says Luo. “I want my life to be dynamic. My research is curiosity driven. But curiosity must be relevant to doing something that changes the world.”

Ohio State named Luo a 2026 Distinguished University Professor, the university’s highest faculty honor. A professor in the department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering, Luo is the Donald D. Glower Chair in Engineering, leads the Lightweight Materials and Manufacturing Research Laboratory and is the Director of the Advanced Casting Research Center (ACRC) at Ohio State.

Since joining Ohio State in 2013, Luo has reshaped how new alloys — metals created from aluminum, magnesium and titanium  — are conceived and engineered. And through his numerous collaborations, his discoveries are directly shared with the manufacturers who put them into production.