MNE FACULTY INTRODUCTION

At present there are 52 tenured or tenure-track faculty members in the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering.  Forty-four are mechanical engineering faculty and eight nuclear engineers. Collectively, we have broad expertise in mechanical and nuclear engineering as well as other areas of engineering, science and mathematics. Through recent faculty additions, we have strengthened the department in the areas of information technology, micro/nanotechnology, and energy and the environment.

Our faculty have received numerous awards for their outstanding teaching and research contributions.  There are currently five faculty members who hold the University's special faculty title of Distinguished Professor.  Only 12 individuals within the College of Engineering are permitted to hold the title of Distinguished Professor*.   In addition, the University receives endowments to fund faculty chairs, professorships, and fellowships.  There are three faculty members who hold endowed professorships that provide the holder of the professorship with the resources necessary to continue and further their outstanding contributions to teaching, research, and public service.   Teaching excellence also prevails, and many of our faculty members have been recognized with the most prestigious University teaching awards available at Penn State.  Faculty have received numerous awards for their outstanding achievements in teaching and research by Penn State Engineering Society (PSES) awards for 21 consecutive years for a total of 71 PSES awards.  Several faculty are renowned in their respective fields of study and have been recognized with national and international awards and hold the rank of fellow in one or more professional societies.   There are 21 faculty members who provide editorial service or oversight to technical journals and 13 are textbook authors.

We also provide leadership to some of Penn State’s most important research and educational programs. The directors of the Breazeale Nuclear Reactor, Center for Acoustics and Vibration, Electrochemical Engine Center, Learning Factory, Leonhard Center, Propulsion Engineering Research Center, and are all members of the mechanical engineering or nuclear engineering faculty. MNE leadership has been provided to many other collaborative teaching and research projects, college and university committees, inter-college programs, and professional activities too numerous to list.

Our faculty productivity, as measured by annual spending per faculty member, is exceeded by very few of our peer Big Ten Universities across the country. The “average” faculty member each year teaches three courses, supervises research spending in excess of $400,000, charges out 20% of his or her academic year salary, graduates about one masters student, graduates about ‘half’ a doctoral student (i.e., one every two years), and publishes four peer-reviewed papers. We take advantage of sabbatical leaves to hone our engineering skills. In a typical year, two to three faculty members are on sabbatical leave.

As educators, our faculty members are at the forefront of engineering expertise.  Our faculty member’s teaching and research interests are described in their web pages. For more detailed information, you are encouraged to contact individual faculty members directly.

*Penn State policy limits the number of distinguished professors to 8% of all full professors within a college.