After decades of dedicated service to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Professor John Gubner has retired, leaving behind a legacy of steadfast commitment and leadership. Throughout his tenure, Gubner played a vital role in shaping the department’s operations, providing invaluable guidance on curriculum development, faculty governance, and student support initiatives. His efforts behind the scenes ensured that ECE remained a thriving academic community, always focused on excellence and innovation.
Gubner earned his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1988, joining UW-Madison soon after. His research focused on applications of probability and statistics along with numerical methods to address various problems in information theory, low-light-level imaging, wireless sensor networks and detection systems, multipath channel modeling, and financial engineering.
His career is highlighted by his commitment to students and service to the ECE department. He taught 16 different courses at all levels, writing a textbook on probability for electrical and computer engineers. He also developed ECE 735, a graduate-level course on signal synthesis and recovery.
Over the years, he served on numerous committees, most notably as the Graduate Coordinator/Associate Chair for Graduate Matters (1999–2005) and ABET Representative (2009–2012). Gubner served as Vice Chair/Associate Chair for Operations (2015–2024) for nearly a decade. During this time, he managed course rescheduling in the summer, fall, and spring semesters amid the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring accommodations for international students unable to leave their home countries. He also developed a new system that streamlined and improved the process of hiring teaching assistants.
Commending Gubner’s contributions, ECE Department Chair Susan Hagness stated, “John made his mark in the technical community as the author of a highly regarded textbook on probability and random processes. That attention to detail, required for writing such a textbook, was also invaluable throughout his steadfast service to ECE as our associate chair for operations in overseeing TA assignments and course scheduling. I’m delighted that we were able to honor him with an ECE Outstanding Faculty Service award prior to his retirement.”
Keith and Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professor Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering John Booske also reflected on Gubner’s impact, “Over the past decade or more, the department has experienced considerable growth in size, scope, excellence, inclusivity, and impact, even though operating in the higher education environment has grown much more complex and challenging. John’s effective and generous leadership as associate chair for operations during this challenging phase has been a crucial, albeit selflessly behind the scenes, enabler of the department’s remarkable success of that growth.”