MABE’s Matthew Mench is among the 2020 class of Chancellor’s Professors.
He joins TCE’s Min H. Kao Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Leon Tolbert and three other exceptional scholars, researchers, and professors to represent the best of what the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has to offer. With expertise spanning humanities, forensic sciences, engineering, and geography, they represent UT with distinction and are doing work that improves lives and our understanding of the world.
Read more about the roster of 2020 Chancellor’s Professors.
“Selecting the nominees for the Chancellor’s Professor is typically a difficult process because of the limit of two nominations—and we have a ‘deep bench’,” said Paul Frymier, associate dean of faculty affairs and engagement and faculty diversity director. “However, this year there were two very deserving faculty members who came to the top at all levels of review.”
Mench and Tolbert are both known as leaders with distinguished histories of service to UT.
“They are people with excellent insight and judgement. The Chancellor couldn’t have made better choices than Matthew Mench and Leon Tolbert,” said Frymier. “TCE can be extraordinarily proud to have both of our nominees selected.”
Mench most recently served as interim vice chancellor for research and engagement, leading the department through the COVID-19 pandemic initial response before returning as head of the MABE department.
His research focuses on electrochemical power conversion and storage including polymer electrolyte fuel cells, flow battery systems, and biological energy systems. He has also studied computational simulation of electrochemical power conversion and storage systems as well as simulation of the influence of rapidly evolving sociocultural factors on decision-making dynamics.
Mench is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and has held multiple leadership positions within the society. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate at the Pennsylvania State University and has been awarded numerous honors and recognitions over the years.