AMUG names Neil Hopkinson its 2027 Innovators Award recipient

The Additive Manufacturing Users Group has selected Professor Neil Hopkinson, Stratasys’ vice president of SAF Technology, for its Innovators Award. AMUG will honor the inventor of High Speed Sintering at its March 2027 conference in Atlantic City, recognizing a process that helped push polymer additive manufacturing toward production-scale use.

Why it matters: - AMUG is honoring one of additive manufacturing’s key technology inventors for work that helped move 3D printing from prototyping toward industrial production. - Hopkinson’s High Speed Sintering helped establish a faster route for polymer powder bed fusion, a process family used in manufacturing applications. - Loughborough University says the HSS intellectual property has generated more than £1 billion in revenues for licensees and supply-chain partners and has more than 2,500 installed machines across Asia, Europe and North America.

What happened: - The Additive Manufacturing Users Group announced Professor Neil Hopkinson as the recipient of its Innovators Award. - Hopkinson is vice president of SAF Technology at Stratasys Ltd. - AMUG will recognize Hopkinson at its annual conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey, March 14-18, 2027. - Hopkinson will appear on stage Wednesday, March 17, 2027, in an informal interview during the Innovators Showcase general session.

The details: - Hopkinson conceived High Speed Sintering early in his academic career to make additive manufacturing scalable for production. - HSS uses printheads to selectively deposit an infrared-absorbing fluid onto polymer powder before infrared energy fuses the material. - The process removes the need to selectively fuse each part with a laser. - Loughborough University, where HSS was invented and patented, began openly licensing the intellectual property in 2013. - Hopkinson’s doctoral research in the late 1990s examined stereolithography for printing injection molds, but process limits pushed him toward new 3D printing approaches. - He moved to Loughborough University in 2001 and invented HSS there in Leicestershire, England. - After 20 years in academia, Hopkinson joined Xaar plc as director of 3D Printing to commercialize HSS. - That work led to a director of Technology role, an HSS-based printer and Xaar 3D Ltd., a joint venture with Stratasys. - In 2021, the joint venture introduced the SAF-powered H350. - Six months later, Stratasys acquired Xaar 3D Ltd., and Hopkinson became vice president of Technology at Stratasys. - Hopkinson now leads R&D for SAF Technology, which builds on the principles of HSS through a distinct production-focused architecture. - Hopkinson received AMUG’s Distinguished INnovator Operator Award in 2009. - TCT inducted Hopkinson into its Hall of Fame in 2025.

Between the lines: - AMUG’s award places Hopkinson alongside other additive manufacturing figures it has previously recognized, including Chuck Hull, Hans Langer, Carl Deckard and Scott Crump. - The recognition underscores how one foundational materials and process innovation can drive both licensing revenue and machine deployment at global scale. - Dallas Martin, AMUG president, said Hopkinson has had a massive impact and helped make manufacturing possible with an additive technology that meets speed, cost and quality needs in automotive, medical device and aerospace. - Hopkinson said in a July 2026 article that his goal was to remove lasers from polymer powder bed fusion so additive manufacturing could become a scalable manufacturing process.

What’s next: - Hopkinson will share his experience, insights and ideas during the AMUG Innovators Showcase session at the 2027 conference. - AMUG says the conference agenda will include presentations, hands-on workshops, roundtable discussions and training sessions for both novice and experienced additive manufacturing users. - Conference details and registration are available at more information.