At Northwestern, I lead the FAST-AM Lab, short for Fundamental Advancements in Science and Technology for Advanced Manufacturing (https://fast-am.mech.northwestern.edu/). The name reflects both what we study and how we approach it. “FAST” also highlights our key methodology: using high-speed sensing and operando characterization techniques to probe manufacturing processes. Over the past decade, my teams have carried out extensive research on metal additive manufacturing, with a strong emphasis on the fundamental physics of energy-metal interactions, heat and mass transport, defect formation, and microstructure evolution. Among all, our most widely recognized contributions are the pioneering development of operando synchrotron x-ray experiments on metal additive manufacturing processes.