Kon-Well Wang

Kon-Well Wang is the A. Galip Ulsoy Distinguished University Professor of Engineering and the Stephen P. Timoshenko Collegiate Professor of Mechanical Engineering (ME) at the University of Michigan (U-M). He has been the Department Chair of Mechanical Engineering at U-M from 2008 to 2018, and has served as the Division Director of the Engineering Education and Centers (EEC) Division at the National Science Foundation (NSF) for two years, 2019-20, via an Executive IPA (Intergovernmental Personnel Act) rotator appointment. Wang received his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, worked at the General Motors Research Labs as a Senior Research Engineer, and started his academic career at the Pennsylvania State University in 1988. At Penn State, Wang has served as the William E. Diefenderfer Chaired Professor, Director of the Structural Dynamics & Controls Lab, co-founder and Associate Director of the Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence, and a Group Leader for the Center for Acoustics & Vibration. Wang joined the U-M in 2008. For his overall achievement in research, education, service and leadership, Wang was awarded the 2019 Stephen S. Attwood Award, the highest faculty honor in the U-M College of Engineering (CoE), and a 2019 U-M Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award. Wang’s research interest is in the emerging fields of structural dynamics, especially in pioneering adaptive structures and material systems with embedded sensing, actuation and control intelligence that can on-demand alter their configurations, properties and dynamics with autonomy.