Decker Receives AMUG Innovators Award

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) has selected Carl Deckard, inventor of Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), for its Innovators Award. The honor will be presented at the AMUG 2017 Conference in Chicago. According to AMUG, the Innovators Award is bestowed on those that have cultivated innovative ideas that in turn have advanced the additive manufacturing industry.

Deckard, who is Structured Polymers’ co-founder and chief technology officer, conceived and developed the Selective Laser Sintering technology while at the University of Texas at Austin. The concept of Selective Laser Sintering took shape when he was an undergrad. Mr. Deckard then pursued it for his master’s degree and Ph.D work. Carl then co-founded Nova Automation, which was later renamed DTM Corp and ultimately acquired by 3D Systems.

“With over 30 years of technology innovation in the additive manufacturing industry, the candidate pool for the Innovators Award is quite deep,” said Steve Deak, president of AMUG. “This made the selection process very difficult. But in the end, we made the best choice, the right choice, when we named Carl Deckard as the recipient. In the early days, the three core technologies were Selective Laser Sintering, Stereolithography and Fused Deposition Modeling. The inventors of the latter two have already received the award. It was time to recognize the innovative mind behind SLS.”

For more information, visit AMUG.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.