Brett Ellis

Professor Brett Ellis, Ph.D. is the Coordinator of UMaine’s Mechanical Engineering Technology program, the Co-Director of UMaine’s Center for Additive Manufacturing of Metals, and leads UMaine’s Lean Six Sigma program. He is a licensed Professional Engineer and a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Prior to joining UMaine in 2015, he worked in industry for 14 years, including oil and gas, polymer processing, and failure analysis consulting. Since joining UMaine, he has taught 12 different courses, primarily in solid mechanics, materials science, and design. Despite having a 100% teaching appointment, Dr. Ellis has served as a PI or CoPI on $16.2M in sponsored research and a Senior Personnel on an additional $20.7M in sponsored research, resulting in more than 18 publications, 8 graduate advisees, the creation of UMaine’s Advanced Manufacturing Center’s (AMC’s) Center for Additive Manufacturing of Metals, and the creation of AMC’s B.O.T. LOFT industry 4.0 workforce training center.

Dr. Ellis is an avid cyclist and, in 2023, completed a solo trans-America bike ride from Yorktown, VA to Astoria, OR. Over 52 days, Dr. Ellis rode 4,352 miles across 10 states and climbed nearly 200,000 ft. Beyond fulfilling a life-long dream, his trans-America bike ride was the initiating event for multiple MET scholarships.

Awards

• Educator of the Year Award, Association for Facilities Engineering (AFE), 2019
• Innovator of the Year Award, Manufacturers Association of Maine (MaME), 2019

Licenses and Professional Certifications

• Professional Engineer (PE)
• Certified Six Sigma Black Belt (CSSBB)

Professional Memberships

• American Society for Quality (ASQ)
• American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)