The International Digital Engineering Association (IDEA) is pleased to announce the 2026 IDEA Honorary Fellows and IDEA Fellows, recognizing distinguished scholars and experts for their outstanding contributions to digital engineering and related fields, as well as their support for the development of IDEA and the DigiTwin conference series.

2026 IDEA Honorary Fellows

• Prof. Qinping Zhao Beihang University, China
  For foundational work in virtual reality, distributed simulation, and real-time graphics platforms.
• Prof. Andrew Y.C. Nee National University of Singapore, Singapore
  For contributions to virtual and augmented reality and digital twin applications.
• Prof. Duc-Truong Pham University of Birmingham, UK
  For pioneering research in intelligent manufacturing, robotics, and bio-inspired optimization.
• Prof. Alain Bernard École Centrale de Nantes, France
  For pioneering work in product lifecycle management and additive manufacturing.
• Prof. Michael Grieves University of Central Florida, USA
  For proposing the digital twin concept.

2026 IDEA Fellows

• Prof. Fei Tao Beihang University, China
  For leadership in establishing digital twin theory, technologies, tools, and standards, and for founding IDEA.
• Prof. Stefan W. Pickl University of the Bundeswehr Munich, Germany
  For contributions to operations research, complex systems optimization, and crisis management.
• Prof. Jan C. Aurich RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, Germany
  For advancing digital production, virtual planning technologies, and industrial product-service systems.
• Prof. Nabil Anwer Université Paris-Saclay, France
  For contributions to geometrical product specifications and the DigiTwin conference series.
• Prof. Tianliang Hu Shandong University, China
  For contributions to digital twin machine tool modeling and the DigiTwin conference series.
• Prof. Xiaojun Liu Southeast University, China
  For contributions to digital twin assembly of mechanical products and the DigiTwin conference series.

The 2026 IDEA Honorary Fellows and IDEA Fellows were formally recognized during the closing ceremony of DigiTwin 2026 on 7 August 2026 at the University of Oxford, UK.

Through the IDEA Honorary Fellows and IDEA Fellows programs, IDEA recognizes distinguished individuals for their outstanding contributions to digital engineering and related disciplines and promotes international collaboration in research, innovation, and the advancement of the field.