He has been a professor of Mechanical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology for more than 25 years. He was a principal of an industrial design firm for more than 20 years during which time he helped design a number of industrial and consumer products. During the past 20 years his major activity has been associated with human joint replacement implants. This work also brought international recognition.

Dr Pappas has more than 60 scholarly publications and more than 50 United States patents to his credit resulting from his work in computer-aided-design and orthopaedic biomechanics.