UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Anthony Atchley, currently senior associate dean in the Penn State College of Engineering, will serve as acting dean for the college starting Aug. 15. The appointment comes as Justin Schwartz, Harold and Inge Marcus Dean in the College of Engineering, transitions to serve as the interim executive vice president and provost for Penn State.
“Anthony has been a tireless advocate for the college and an invaluable partner for me since I arrived at Penn State in 2017,” Schwartz said. “I have depended on his counsel, deep institutional knowledge, wisdom and friendship, and I know Anthony will step into this role not simply as a caretaker but as a leader who will continue to pursue the college’s strategic priorities.”
In his roles in the college, Atchley has overseen research administration and development, budget and finance, faculty affairs, human resources, intellectual property, facilities, and network and information systems. In the last two years, he also spearheaded the development of the college’s strategic plan, as well as new promotion and tenure guidelines for faculty. The strategic plan focuses on the interdependent cornerstones of excellence, equity, sustainability and social mobility with the goal of facilitating impact on Penn State, engineering and society.
“I am honored to build upon the leadership shown by Dean Schwartz since he arrived at Penn State in 2017 and to continue advancing the college as we build a more equitable and inclusive academic community in engineering,” Atchley said. “From our facilities transformation now underway at University Park, to record levels of interest and demand among prospective engineering students, to a research enterprise that continues to reach new heights for impact and expenditures, the college is well positioned for the future. I look forward to working with our faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners to maintain our upward trajectory and our ongoing work to culturally shift how we identify, measure and celebrate success while upholding our standards of excellence.”
Atchley, who also is a professor of acoustics, joined Penn State in 1997 to lead the Graduate Program in Acoustics. He became associate dean in 2008 and senior associate dean in 2014. In service to the University, Atchley co-chaired two subcommittees in response to COVID-19, the Faculty Issues Subcommittee of the Academic Oversight Team and the COVID Equity Subcommittee for the Faculty Affairs Advisory Council. Prior to moving to Penn State, Atchley chaired the Naval Postgraduate School’s Physics Department.
He has conducted research on shock formation in very high-amplitude noise, measurements of commercial aircraft and sub- and super-sonic military jets noise, acoustic propagation modeling, optical imaging of sound fields, ultrasonics, oscillatory boundary layer processes and acoustic heat transport. Atchley is a fellow and past president of the Acoustical Society of America, as well as a past member of the American Institute of Physics Governing Board Executive Committee and the American Society for Engineering Education’s Engineering Research Council board of directors. He also served as Penn State’s principal investigator for the Partnership for Air Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction Center of Excellence, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, NASA and Transport Canada.
“The College of Engineering could not be in better hands during this time of leadership transitions,” Schwartz said. “Anthony has already demonstrated significant commitment to the college, the University and engineering as a profession. He cares deeply about our community members, and he will lead the Penn State College of Engineering expertly and thoughtfully.”