Crone named NSF program director

Wendy Crone, the Karen Thompson Medhi Professor in the Department of Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics at UW-Madison, was named a program director within the Directorate for Engineering at the National Science Foundation.

Her responsibilities span the biomechanics & mechanobiology program, the mechanics of materials and structures program, and the major research instrumentation program in the Division of Civil, Mechanical and Manufacturing Innovation.

This position takes advantage of both her research expertise in mechanics as well as her prior experience in administrative oversight of grants and awards programs.

“I believe my background positions me to support and advance the policies and initiatives of the National Science Foundation and benefit the field of mechanics,” Crone says.

Crone’s research spans experimental solid mechanics, biomechanics, materials characterization and medical devices. Currently she is exploring the interplay between cells and the mechanics of their surroundings through an engineered micropatterned platform developed in her lab. This platform has provided new insights into both healthy and diseased cardiac cells, as well as skeletal muscle, with structural, mechanical and electrical readouts. In addition to journal publications and patents, she is the author of two books, Introduction to Engineering Research (2020) and Survive and Thrive: A Guide for Untenured Faculty (2010). Crone is fellow and past president of the Society for Experimental Mechanics, a discovery fellow in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, and recently received the Award for Mentoring Undergraduates in Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities from UW-Madison.