Today, guided by the directorship of Prof. Wojciech Misiolek, the Institute's main research objective is to conduct cross-disciplinary process engineering studies, in order to better understand and control various forming and processing techniques and their impact on the microstructural response of a material. The more classical metal forming research has been expanded and involves projects in metal powder processing, metal machining, microstructure analysis and characterization, forming of polymers and ceramics. A lot of attention is placed today on the both physical and numerical modeling of materials processing and optimization as well as microstructure development. The IMF is intensely involved in graduate and undergraduate education as well as training for technical staff from industry. The Institute has a steadily growing base of equipment and expertise allowing conducting of its academic and industry related research in a variety of fields including:

• Biomaterials
• Material Design
• Manufacturing
• Materials Modeling

The cross-disciplinary nature of the IMF has included projects, which have been co-investigated with students and faculty from the departments of Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, and Industrial and Systems Engineering from Lehigh and other universities. International scientists and graduate students from North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Oceana have actively collaborated in research with the IMF.