DUBOIS – Effective July 1, Dr. Pingjuan Werner, professor of engineering, will assume responsibilities as interim chancellor at Penn State DuBois.
Werner fills the role vacated by Chancellor M. Scott McBride, who also retires, effective July 1. Werner has taken on the interim chancellor tole twice before, serving in the office in both 2013 and 2016.
Werner began teaching at the campus as an instructor in 1990. She rose through the ranks of assistant professor and associate professor, and was promoted to professor in 2005.
Werner’s concentration is in electrical engineering, and she has taught a variety of courses in that field at the campus.
Her research interests include theoretical and computational electromagnetics with applications to antenna theory and design, electromagnetic metamaterials, wireless and personal communication systems, fractal electrodynamics and genetic algorithms.
Her work has primarily involved developing novel antenna design technologies. She has developed several new techniques useful for designing miniature and multiband/broadband antennas as well as miniature arrays.
Her work on genetically-engineered fractal/stochastic antennas has been developed and applied as part of several funded research contracts. She has two U.S. patents, over 100 publications and has written five book chapters.
Among her accomplishments and recognitions, Werner has been selected as a Leonhard Center Fellow and awarded funding for developing and improving undergraduate courses from The Leonhard Center, College of Engineering.
She was a recipient of the College of Engineering PSES Outstanding Teaching Award and the Best Paper Award from the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society.
She is a Life Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), as well as a member of Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi.
“We are grateful to Dr. Werner for her willingness to serve in the interim role. The campus, I am sure, will benefit from her dedicated leadership,” said Senior Vice President for Commonwealth Campuses and Executive Chancellor Madlyn Hanes.
“Dr. Werner has served the campus and the University exceedingly well over her long career. She has served in the interim chancellor role in prior years, and more recently as Interim Associate Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Programs in 2018-19, and Chair of the Taskforce for Faculty Promotion in 2019-20.
“In these latter roles, Werner helped advance the academic portfolios of our campuses, and identified timely pathways for faculty advancement, respectively.”
Penn State will launch a national search this fall to identify the next chancellor and chief academic officer for Penn State DuBois.