Dr. Conway is currently the Program Director (2008-Present) for the:
1. General & Age Related Disabilities Engineering Program (GARDE),
2. CBET-National Robotics Initiative (NRI)
3. CBET-Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grant in Engineering Program (BRIGE)
4. Science and Technology Center (STC): Emergent Behaviors of Integrated Cellular Systems (EBICS)
in the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems Engineering (CBET) Division of the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Before returning to NSF he was a Professor and Associate Dean for Research Services in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University (2006-2008). Prior to his appointment at VCU he was the Program Director for the Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) Program in the Education and Human Resources (EHR) Directorate at NSF (2004-2006) while he maintained his tenured position as Associate Professor in Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, FL (1999-2006). Before arriving at UCF, he accepted the tenure-track position of Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Akron (U of A) in Akron, OH. He was promoted to Associate Professor and held a joint appointment in Biomedical Engineering at the U of A (1991-1999).
Dr. Conway received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from Florida State University (1977) and the M.S. (1988) and Ph.D. (1991) degrees in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. While a Ph.D. student, he was a Summer Federal Employee for the Department of the Navy at the Naval Underwater Systems Center in Newport, RI (1990) and the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC (1987 & 88).
Prior to attending graduate school, Dr. Conway worked in the industrial sector as a Research Scientist with Olin Corporation (1978) in St. Marks, FL, Quality Control Director (1978-1980) with Oil-Dri Corporation in Ochlocknee, GA and a Polymer Engineer (1980-1986) with Michelin Americas Research and Development Corporation in Greenville, SC. He has had over 34 years of experience working in the government, academic and industrial sectors.