Areas of Expertise

Dr. Wendy Crone is an accomplished engineer, inventor, and administrator. Her engineering expertise spans experimental solid mechanics, materials characterization, biomechanics, and medical devices. She brings scientific integrity expertise, expansive talent acquisition network, and fiscal experience managing multi-million-dollar projects. She has extensive experience in the higher education sector, with broad connections to engineering industry.

Since joining the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1998, Dr. Crone has developed an international research reputation in mechanics of materials. Her work has ties to the medical device, aerospace, and heavy equipment manufacturing industries. She has served as principal investigator on numerous single and multi-investigator research projects and co-authored successful grants totaling more than $70M in multi-investigator and center awards. Dr. Crone has managed technical and nontechnical projects, had direct oversight of budgets exceeding $2M/year, and coordinated groups of personnel of up to 30 individuals.

Her experience includes serving as Associate Dean and Interim Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she had oversight of all areas of graduate education for over 9,000 enrolled students across more than 150 post-baccalaureate programs. She was responsible for Graduate School offices which managed admissions, academic services, academic analysis, funding, professional development, and diversity. Dr. Crone shepherded the organization through a major restructuring, which involved re-envision its campus identity.

Dr. Crone has an expansive network of engineering talent. In parallel with the success of her engineering research program and administrative accomplishments, she has built an international and award-winning reputation for mentoring and engineering education. In addition to authoring books on mentoring and professional development, Dr. Crone has directed a campus-wide mentoring program and is currently the Associate Chair for Faculty and Staff Development in the Department of Engineering Physics.

She has served on high profile boards for the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and has board and leadership experience with the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Inc. In addition to her external board experience, she has served extensively in governance capacities. She has been a member and chaired numerous campus committees including the Wisconsin Materials Research Science and Engineering Center Executive Committee, Physical Sciences Research Committee, Graduate Faculty Executive Committee, Graduate School Continuity of Operations Executive Management Team, and College of Engineering Equity & Diversity Committee. Dr. Crone has been involved with strategic planning processes through her work with both on and off campus organizations.

Her Ph.D. is in Engineering Mechanics (University of Minnesota), with a MS in Engineering (Brown University) and BS in Engineering Mechanics with Honors (University of Illinois). Outside of the U.S., she has lived in Australia and Italy.