Ibrahim Jawahir, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering, and director of the Institute for Sustainable Manufacturing (ISM), received the UK Sustainability Yanarella Levine Legacy Award at the 2025 Sustainability Showcase. The award recognize members of the UK Community who have contributed a tremendous body of work supporting a legacy of sustainability at the University of Kentucky and beyond.
For more than three decades at the University of Kentucky, Jawahir has built a far-reaching legacy in sustainable manufacturing—one that advances UK’s mission on campus and resonates across academia and industry worldwide. As James F. Hardymon Chair in Manufacturing Systems and founding director of UK ISM, he has transformed sustainability from aspiration into strength: a research, education, and outreach engine that develops solutions, prepares the workforce, and convenes global partners around responsible production.
Jawahir established ISM as a multidisciplinary institute with the explicit mission to “develop and advance sustainable manufacturing principles and practices in Kentucky, the nation and the world.” Through ISM, he has led multi-university and cross-college teams, mentored 26 postdoctoral researchers and more than 150 graduate students (100+ M.S. and 52 Ph.D.), and engaged companies to translate innovations into measurable improvements in productivity, resource efficiency, and sustainability performance. His work is supported by more than $75M in funding from federal agencies and industry. His leadership has enhanced education and workforce development, as well as innovation and technology transfer in sustainable manufacturing.
Internationally, Jawahir has elevated UK’s visibility as a leader in the field. He is founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Sustainable Manufacturing, which has shaped the global research agenda for over a decade, and Technical Editor of Machining Science and Technology. He is also a CIRP Fellow (International Academy for Production Engineering)—one of only 155 worldwide—as well as many other professional societies and led multiple international working groups. He has fostered collaboration with more than 45 researchers from 25 countries. He co-founded the highly regarded, CIRP-sponsored, Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing in 2003. All these efforts have positioned UK as a global center of excellence for sustainable manufacturing.
Jawahir’s scholarly record reflects sustained and transformative impact. He has authored foundational works on sustainable machining and product design for sustainability, published 185+ journal papers (from over 480 publications), secured five U.S. patents, and delivered 84 keynote/plenary addresses and 160+ invited talks globally. His contributions are recognized with prestigious international awards, including SME’s Frederick W. Taylor Manufacturing Research Medal (2022), ASME’s Milton C. Shaw Manufacturing Research Medal (2013), and the William Johnson International Gold Medal (2015) for lifetime achievements in manufacturing.
Equally important to the spirit of the Yanarella Levine Legacy Award, Jawahir has invested deeply in people and programs. In addition to mentoring students, early-career faculty, and industry practitioners, he has also helped modernize curricula to embed sustainability, and partnered with companies to upskill the Kentucky workforce for the circular economy and enhancing sustainability.
Jawahir exemplifies the award’s intent: a current faculty member whose “tremendous body of work” supports a lasting legacy of sustainability at UK and beyond. Through institution-building, field-leading scholarship and editorship, sustained global leadership, and unwavering commitment to students, colleagues and collaborators he has made sustainability a signature of the University of Kentucky.
Richard Levine is a retired Professor of Architecture and an award-winning architect of buildings and sustainable cities. For several decades, he served as the co-director of the UK Center for Sustainable Cities. Experts have said that his continuing contributions in passive theory and practice have significantly enlarged the way we think about the context of solar architecture and sustainability at both the building and community scale. Levine has written more than 200 publications on solar energy and urban sustainability. He is widely recognized for his achievements in environmental and passive solar architecture, solar energy and sustainability.
Dr. Yanarella is a retired Professor in the Political Science Department. For several decades, he served as the Associate Director of the Center for Sustainable Cities and was selected by the Dean on faulty recommendation as Director of Environmental Studies Program in the College of Arts & Sciences for two terms totaling 10 years of service. Dr. Yanarella's teaching and research interests aligned well with the mission of the program, and his experience as an administrator provided valuable guidance to the program. He served as Director of Undergraduate Studies and Director of Graduate studies for several stints, from 2011-2017, and he also served as Chair of the Department of Political Science for six years before a year sabbatical and retirement in July 2019. He was president of the Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Kentucky for seven years. A faculty leader at the university level, he was elected to serve as chair of the Senate Council and as the presiding officer of the University Senate, and subsequently elected by his peers as a faculty trustee of the UK Board of Trustees.
