The Institute - December 2020 - TI-8

profile

ATHRYN JABLOKOW was

inspired to pursue a career
in academia by her father,
who taught electrical engineering at Ohio State University, in Columbus, for 52 years. She
took note of how he helped students
understand difficult engineering concepts,
conducted interesting research and, most
importantly for her, learned something
new every day-often by traveling abroad.
The IEEE senior member followed in
her father's footsteps in 1990, when she
joined the faculty of Pennsylvania State
University as a professor of engineering design and mechanical engineering.
She had spent the previous year doing
research at a manufacturing institute at
RWTH Aachen University, in Germany.
Earlier this year, she took on a new job-
but not in academia. She was appointed
as program director for the U.S. National
Science Foundation's Engineering Design
and Systems Engineering program in the
Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation. The EDSE program
supports fundamental research into the
basic processes and phenomena of engineering design and systems engineering.
During her term, which she began in
July, Jablokow is overseeing the research
projects currently being funded by the
NSF. She guides each project's lead
researchers as they complete their work.
She also evaluates and helps choose
which new projects will receive funding from the foundation.
The position of program director brings
together Jablokow's research experience
with her passion for mentoring others.
" I like a challenge. I enjoy helping engineers generate bold research questions and
find ways to make connections between

TI-8 | DEC 2020 | THE INSTITUTE

ELIZABETH PALMER

NSF's Kathryn Jablokow
Seeks Projects With
a Humanitarian Edge

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynjablokow/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top%3BW2ZR8HqAR1upC6fe5wpnsw%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top-search_srp_result&lici=oSu1wuK3TW%2BNBUMwYjEqKg%3D%3D https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynjablokow/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top%3BW2ZR8HqAR1upC6fe5wpnsw%3D%3D&licu=urn%3Ali%3Acontrol%3Ad_flagship3_search_srp_top-search_srp_result&lici=oSu1wuK3TW%2BNBUMwYjEqKg%3D%3D https://www.osu.edu/ https://www.osu.edu/ https://www.psu.edu/ https://www.psu.edu/ https://www.rwth-aachen.de/go/id/a/?lidx=1 https://www.nsf.gov/ https://www.nsf.gov/ https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505478 https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505478 https://www.nsf.gov/eng/cmmi/about.jsp https://www.nsf.gov/eng/cmmi/about.jsp

The Institute - December 2020

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