Leadership

In March 2013, Ian Robertson began as the ninth dean of the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering.

Robertson, formerly Donald B. Willett professor of engineering at the University of Illinois and director of the National Science Foundation Division of Materials Research, leads a growing college with more than 5,000 undergraduates, 1,500 graduate students, and an annual budget totaling more than $200 million.

Robertson’s research focuses on how microstructure evolves in materials exposed to extreme conditions— stress, strain rate, gaseous and chemical environments and radiation—to enhance understanding of macro-scale property changes. He is author of more than 240 research publications on materials science topics and was named fellow of ASM International in 2009.

From 2011-13, Robertson was director of the Division of Materials Research for the National Science Foundation. From 2003-2009, he served as Department Head for the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois. He has been a member of the materials science faculty since 1983.

Robertson has received numerous teaching and research awards, including DOE awards for outstanding scientific accomplishment in metallurgy and ceramics (DOE Basic Energy Sciences, 1984) for contributions to our understanding of mechanisms of hydrogen embrittlement (DOE EE Fuel Cell Program, 2011), and is the 2014 recipient of the ASM Edward DeMille Campbell Memorial Lectureship.

He received his bachelor’s in applied physics, Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland in 1978; and Doctor of Metallurgy, University of Oxford, Oxford, England, in 1982.

David A. Noyce became College of Engineering executive associate dean in June 2019. In this role, he serves as the lead associate dean and works collaboratively with the associate deans for undergraduate affairs, research and graduate affairs, research administration, advancement, and administrative and finance. His duties include leading long-range strategic planning related to administrative, financial, infrastructure and educational directions of the college. Noyce also oversees the college undergraduate program, Wendt Commons, Computer-Aided Engineering, the engineering student shops, and the college outreach efforts. Additionally, he plays a leadership role in faculty recruitment, promotion, pre- and post-tenure activities, compensation and retention.

He is the Dr. Arthur F. Hawnn Professor of Transportation Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering from UW-Madison in 1984 and 1995, respectively, and received his PhD in civil (transportation) engineering from Texas A&M University in 1999. He is a registered professional engineer in Wisconsin. He also has completed coursework for an MBA degree at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Noyce has more than three decades of experience in transportation engineering, including appointments in state government, private consulting, and academia. He began his career with the Illinois Department of Transportation, then moved to the private sector in leadership positions in several consulting engineering firms. He also held positions at Texas A&M University and the Texas Transportation Institute before joining the faculty at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 1999. He returned to UW-Madison in 2002 and joined the faculty in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, teaching courses on topics that include transportation engineering, geometric design, traffic engineering, transportation safety, and human factors in transportation. He served as department chair from 2015-2019, providing leadership during a period of unprecedented student, faculty, research and philanthropic growth. Under him, the department continued to be ranked as one of the top-15 (top-10 public) in the country. He is a champion for recruiting and retaining faculty, staff and students in STEM disciplines, particularly those traditionally underrepresented in engineering.

Recognized internationally for his expertise in transportation safety and operations, specifically at complex intersections, Noyce has made several significant contributions to the advancement of transportation engineering. As a principal investigator, he has completed nearly 200 research projects totaling $30 million in expenditures, and authored more than 300 refereed scholarly papers, conference proceedings, research reports, and book chapters. Among his contributions, he was the lead researcher in the development and implementation of the flashing yellow arrow permissive left-turn traffic signal indication, which is considered one of the most significant improvements in traffic signal operations and traffic safety in recent history and has been adopted by every U.S. transportation agency and implemented at thousands of signalized intersections throughout the country.

Noyce also conducts research nationally and internationally in the areas of connected and automated vehicles, leads the federally designated Wisconsin Automated Proving Grounds, and helped establish a joint research Institute with Southeast University in Nanjing, China. He is founding director of the Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory at UW-Madison, leads the Wisconsin Driving Simulator Laboratory, and directs the UW-Madison partnership in the SAFER-SIM University Transportation Center.

As associate dean for administration and chief financial officer for the College of Engineering, Whitehorse provides leadership, management and oversight of the administrative functions of the college, represents the college on campus-level policy making and policy oversight committees involving financial matters, and is responsible for assuring compliance with rules and regulations affecting financial management of college resources. As CFO, Whitehorse oversees operational areas of budget, financial management and analysis, human resources, payroll, and facilities that enable the strategic mission and goals of the college.

Whitehorse joined the College of Engineering as associate dean in 2019. Prior to 2019, Whitehorse was associate dean for administration in the UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and has more than 20 years of experience at UW-Madison managing a broad range of budget, financial and administrative responsibilities. Whitehorse holds a BBA in accounting and marketing from the Wisconsin School of Business at UW-Madison.

In his role as associate dean, Chris focuses on advancing the vision for inclusion, equity, and diversity: to foster a culture of belonging for all at the College of Engineering. He collaborates with students, staff, faculty, leadership and other partners to create, implement and assess programs and policies to support the vision.

Chris is a nationally recognized educational expert, currently serving on the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) Advisory Committee guiding the development of the association’s first course on inclusive teaching. He was a member of the core planning committee for the 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Summit: A Big Ten ++ Engineering Workshop that brought together academic partners from universities across the nation to develop strategies for integrating DEI into engineering undergraduate curricula and increasing faculty knowledge and skills on DEI. From 2020-2022, he served as expert facilitator on the NSF-funded program, Aspire: National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty.

Chris joined the College of Engineering in January 2022, bringing to the college more than a decade of experience in educational development. Prior to joining the College of Engineering, he directed Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence (MTLE), UW-Madison’s flagship professional development in teaching program for early-career faculty. Chris also has served as an educational impact collaborator on the NSF CAREER Award grants of nine UW-Madison recipients, many of whom are College of Engineering faculty members, and has been an expert educational consultant on the UW-Madison Virtual Brain Project.

As associate dean for academic affairs for the College of Engineering, Prem oversees undergraduate and graduate student services, including student services centers (advising), engineering student development (career services, cooperative education, and study abroad), undergraduate learning center (academic enhancement and tutoring), student engagement, health and wellness and scholarships.

Oliver Schmitz is the Associate Dean for Research Innovation. In this role, he oversees the efforts of the College to expand the strong research portfolio into the industry and entrepreneurial space and explore and launch new, large-scale initiatives. As Director of the Grainger Institute of Engineering, Schmitz oversees turning the endowment support provided by the Grainger Foundation into measurable research initiatives that build on our strength and grow into unchartered engineering research and technology development territory – moving research forward, from the remarkable to the market. The research innovation office in the College also includes the Office of Corporate Relations, focused on industry and corporate engagements, and the Technology Entrepreneur Office, which supports faculty in their entrepreneurial journey.

Schmitz is Thomas and Suzanne Werner Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics. He is an expert in high-temperature plasma physics for fusion energy applications and low-temperature, high-density plasma physics for next-generation particle accelerators. A core expertise of his research group is the plasma material interaction challenge for energy applications and new plasma source technologies for a variety of science and industry applications.

Schmitz obtained his PhD in plasma physics at the Heinrich-Heine University, Duesseldorf, Germany, in 2006 and he joined the UW Madison faculty in 2014. He received the Early Career Awards of both, the Department of Energy and the National Science Foundation in 2015. His research group is active in UW Madison fusion and material science facilities as well as large-scale national and international fusion science research facilities.

As Associate Dean for Research, Rothamer provides overall leadership for the College of Engineering Office of Research, the mission of which is to support the growth of the College of Engineering research enterprise, to effectively lead and manage the core facilities operated by the college, and to develop faculty recruitment and retention cases. He collaborates with the Associate Dean for Research Innovation to further grow and strategically expand the research enterprise in the College of Engineering. The Associate Dean for Research serves as the representative of the Dean on campus committees associated with sponsored research. 

Rothamer is the Robert Lorenz Professor and Director of the Engine Research Center in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is an expert in combustion, internal combustion (IC) engines, renewable fuels, and optical diagnostics. His research is focused on understanding thermo-fluid and chemical processes in engines to improve and enable the operation of engines on renewable fuels. His research group develops and applies advanced laser and optical diagnostic techniques to study these areas inside IC engines.

Rothamer obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the UW-Madison in 2000 and 2002, respectively. He earned his PhD from Stanford University in mechanical engineering in 2008. Rothamer joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UW-Madison in 2008 as a faculty member and received an NSF CAREER award in 2011. During the COVID-19 pandemic he applied his expertise in aerosols and filtration to study the impact of room ventilation, mask filtration, and mask fit on SARS-CoV-2 transmission in classroom settings. This work was cited by the CDC and received a best paper award from an ASHRAE journal. 

Ed Borbely became associate dean for Interdisciplinary Professional Programs in summer 2019. In this role, he oversees the Office of Interdisciplinary Professional Programs. Working collaboratively with engineering academic departments, campus units and industry, he leads the development, marketing and delivery of lifelong learning opportunities, including professional and online degree programs, on-campus accelerated master’s degree programs, and non-credit programs.

Borbely’s leadership in establishing online learning capabilities, developing new interdisciplinary programs, and building relationships with faculty, academic leaders, and employers has benefitted students and communities on campus, regionally and around the globe since 1984. He has served as associate dean and executive director of graduate and professional education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Washington University in St. Louis. There, he led the development and delivery of interdisciplinary and professional programs in engineering, management, technology, healthcare, and organizational leadership for both on-campus and online students. He collaborated closely with department chairs and faculty to launch new degree and certificate programs and to increase core faculty engagement in learning design and innovation, strategic planning and implementation, curriculum development, and improved learning outcomes.

For the 21 years prior, he served in a variety of increasingly responsible roles at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he was director of the Integrative Systems and Design Division and its predecessor units, including InterPro and the Center for Professional Development in the College of Engineering. At Michigan, he spearheaded and directed all aspects of technology development for the College of Engineering’s online learning systems, enrollment services, digital marketing, operations, and the administration of many successful professional programs serving students both on-campus and online in Europe, Asia, and throughout the Americas. He also led and managed efforts to engage faculty, staff, and global client organizations to create eight successful master’s programs, including those in systems engineering and design, energy systems, and design science, and more than 100 short courses and professional development programs for working professionals throughout the world.

In addition, Borbely previously was director of off-campus education in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia University in New York, where he was responsible for graduate distance education and other nontraditional programs in engineering. He was a faculty fellow with the New Jersey Department of Higher Education, leading the New Jersey Intercampus Network (NJIN) project. He also has been a consultant on telecommunications, instructional technology and methodology, and distance learning initiatives for a variety of organizations throughout the world, and has served as an executive in three successful edtech startup companies.

Borbely holds a bachelor’s degree in communication, information, and library science from Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a master’s degree from the New York University Interactive Telecommunications Program. He serves on the governing council of the International Association of Continuing Engineering Education. He also has been an active member and leader in several other professional and community organizations.

As associate dean for advancement for the College of Engineering, Cathleen Walters oversees the college development, alumni relations, corporate relations and communications teams and is carrying out a new model for advancement developed in collaboration with UW Foundation.

With an array of experience that includes major-gift fund-raising in healthcare, academia and nonprofit settings, Walters joined the college as associate dean in fall 2013. Prior to this position, she was director of philanthropy for the Columbia St. Mary’s Foundation in Milwaukee, where she worked on a $45 million capital campaign to build a new hospital. Walters also has held development director positions with Purdue University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Pennsylvania, Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services in Watertown, Wisconsin, and Family Sharing of Ozaukee County in Grafton, Wisconsin.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism from UW-Madison in 1990 and currently is pursuing a master’s degree in nonprofit administration and philanthropy from Bay Path College.