Formlabs co-founder and CEO to be honored with industry award at next year’s conference.
Being recognized for your work is always an honor, but some accolades are undoubtedly more meaningful than others. Being on the Forbes’ 30 Under 30, for example, is certainly impressive, but that list is somewhat diminished by some unfortunate inclusions, such as Sam Bankman-Fried and Martin Shkreli. Being prominently featured in a Netflix documentary also sounds good, until you remember that puts you in the same group as Joe Exotic and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The moral here is that recognition on its own isn’t enough. What’s truly meaningful is when you’re recognized for your accomplishments by a group of your peers—the people who are most qualified to understand their impact. Which brings me to Max Lobovsky.
He’s been on the Forbes’ 30 Under 30, and he featured prominently in the 2014 Netflix documentary Print the Legend (which I’d highly recommend to anyone with an interest in the history of consumer 3D printing), but now he’s the recipient of an even more notable achievement: the Additive Manufacturing Users Group (AMUG) Innovator Award.
It’s reserved for people who have helped advance the AM industry through innovations, and that’s a more than apt description of Lobovsky. A co-founder of Formlabs and its current CEO, Lobovsky took the company he and his fellow MIT graduate students created from a Kickstarter initiative to a $2 billion company with 10 locations and over 700 employees.
“The trio of grad students identified a problem and pursued a mission to correct it,” said Shannon VanDeren, AMUG’s president, in a press release. “Clearly, their ambition of bringing a low-cost printer to market that could hold its own against established equipment was met with enthusiasm and success. The AMUG Board of Directors admires his story. Max was an obvious selection for the Innovators Award, and we were unanimous in our decision.”
Lobovsky will be presented with the Innovators Award at the 2026 AMUG Conference. Previous recipients include such AM industry household names as Chuck Hull, Scott Crump, Carl Deckard, Fried Vancraen, Gideon Levy, Hans Langer, Andy Christensen, Diana Kalisz, Greg Morris, and Joe Allison.
“Formlabs has had a dramatic impact on the 3D printing landscape,” VanDeren said in the same release. “Its success across the personal and professional spaces, from individuals to startups to global industry leaders, has greatly expanded the adoption, exploration, and consumption of the technology. Max’s leadership and tenacity deserve to be recognized by our Innovators Award.”
Lobovsky will take the main stage for an informal, conversational interview during the Innovators Showcase on March 18, 2026. The aim of the conversation is for Lobovsky to share his experiences, insights, and ideas with the ultimate goal of giving the audience a deeper understanding of his journey and what drives him. The conference will be held March 15–19, 2026, at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, NV.
