Newsletter Archives; Fall 1996

Prior to coming to the University of Washington as Dean of the College of Engineering, Denice D. Denton was a professor of electrical and computer engineering and chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During her nine-year tenure at Wisconsin, she was named a Presidential Young Investigator by the National Science Foundation and received numerous teaching honors including the ASEE George Westinghouse Award (1995) and the IEEE Harriet B. Rigas Teaching Award (1995).

An expert in the development and use of micromachining for the design and fabrication of microelectronic systems, she was a research leader for the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Engineering Research Center for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing. Dr. Denton was co-director of the National Institute for Science Education, a $10 million National Science Foundation initiative to boost the science, math, engineering and technology literacy of U.S. students. She was also director of the University of Wisconsin- Madison's Manufacturing Engineering Education for the Future program, designed to enhance the quality and diversity of undergraduate engineering education.

Dr. Denton has developed a Microfabrication Demonstration Kit which is being used in K-12 classrooms in more than thirty states to introduce students to microelectronics. She also works actively to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to consider careers in science and engineering.