UW Madison | Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Director, MSE Program

Ananth Krishnamurthy assumed leadership of the Manufacturing Systems Engineering program in January 2008. An alumnus of the MSE program himself, he returned to UW-Madison after leaving his previous position of Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. His teaching and research interests are in the area of lead time reduction and quick response manufacturing, performance analysis of manufacturing systems and supply chains, queuing theory and stochastic models, and optimization and simulation.

Professor Krishnamurthy teaches the Capstone course, the project-oriented centerpiece of the MSE curriculum. He is the main advisor for students working on industry projects and other independent study projects. In addition to his postition with the MSE program, he serves as Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and as Director of the Center for Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), a consortium of over 50 companies working with the University on understanding and implementing QRM strategies.

Professor Krishnamurthy holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai, India and M.S. in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from UW-Madison. He earned his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the guidance of Prof. Rajan Suri, the previous director of the MSE program and founder of the concept and methodology of Quick Response Manufacturing. At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Krishnamurthy was named winner of the institution's Engineering Excellence in Education Award for 2007.

Administrative Assistant

John Loeffelholz has been with the Manufacturing Systems Engineering (MSE) program for the last six years. Often the first point of contact for students and visitors, he supervises admissions and other administrative functions for the MSE program.

A native of Wisconsin, John has previously worked in another position in the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He enjoys the frequent interaction with students and helps them to navigate university life.

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Hanns-Peter Nagel keeps students, alumni, and the public informed about MSE. He oversees the design, writing and publishing of news content and promotion materials online and offline. He brings to this task extensive experience in public relations complemented by a focus on graphic design, the development of Web sites and online applications.

Hanns-Peter joined the MSE program in July 2008. Before coming to Madison, Hanns-Peter served for two years as the Executive Director of the Radford Heritage Foundation and Glencoe Museum in Radford, Virginia. He has a master’s degree in speech communication, political science, and American history from the Eberhard-Karls-University in Tuebingen, Germany.