FORCE MULTIPLIER

A "human dynamo" trains the trainers in India.

WHEN KRISHNA VEDULA was hired as an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at Case Western Reserve University in 1980, he asked his department head how best to succeed. "He was blunt. He just said, 'Bring in money,'" recalls Vedula. So Vedula successfully concentrated on research, developing an expertise in the powder processing of materials. He became a full professor in 1990. and went on to spend four years as head of the materials science and engineering department at Iowa State University, and eight years as dean at University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML), where he is now dean emeritus.

But Vedula always …