Biographical Sketch

Prof. Wendy C. Crone the Associate Dean for Graduate Education in the Graduate School and a Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her research is in the area of solid mechanics, and many of the topics she has investigated are connected with nanotechnology and biotechnology. As a Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics with affiliate appointments in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she has applied her technical expertise to improving fundamental understanding of mechanical response of materials, enhancing material behavior through surface modification and nanostructuring, exploring the interplay between cells and the mechanics of their surroundings, and developing new material applications and medical devices. She has worked in the medical device industry and has publications and patents pending on medical devices and biomaterials. As a sample of prior accomplishments, her research group has demonstrated the capability of shape memory alloy-based thermomechanical data storage device at the nanoscale, adapted plasma surface modifications techniques to produce highly biocompatible shape memory alloys, developed magnetic methods for control over the position and orientation of nanowires, and conducted foundational experiments on the mechanical behavior of responsive hydrogels.

Prof. Crone was granted a CAREER Award by the National Science Foundation in 2002, received the top Hot Talk/Cool Paper Award from the Materials Research Society in 2007, honored with the WEPAN Educator Award and the Doris Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2011, and received a Career Enhancement Award for Stem Cell Research (K18) from the National Institutes of Health in 2011. In addition to more than 50 peer reviewed journal publications, she is the author of the book Survive and Thrive: A Guide for Untenured Faculty (Morgan & Claypool Publishers, 2010). Professor Crone served as Faculty Co-Director of the Women in Science and Women in Science and Engineering Residential Program (1999-2001); Director of Education and Outreach for the Materials Science Research and Engineering Center (MRSEC) on Nanostructured Materials and Interfaces (2001-2007); the Director of the Women Faculty Mentoring Program (2007-2011); and Interim Associate Dean for Physical Sciences in the Graduate School (2011-2012) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Go to Extended Research Page