Tom Litzinger, Ph.D.
Assistant Dean for Educational Innovation, Accreditation and Digital Learning and Professor of Mechanical Engineering
My path to the Leonhard Center:
My journey to the Leonhard Center started in my first year at Penn State when my students’ rating of my teaching in Thermodynamics 1 (the ratings were unusually high for the course) caught the attention of the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. He sponsored me to attend ASEE. About five years later, my Associate Dean asked me to take over as Penn State’s Principal Investigator for the NSF-funded ECSEL coalition that included Morgan State, Howard, University of Maryland, University of Washington, and MIT. This opportunity dramatically increased my interest and understanding of many important topics including diversity, design-based learning and faculty development. Seven years after taking over as Penn State PI for ECSEL, I applied for and was successful in securing my current position as Director of the Leonhard Center. Over the more than 25 years that I have worked in engineering education, I have also had the opportunity to engage with a number of initiatives at Penn State outside of my college including general education, ethics education and learning outcomes assessment. I have been fortunate to be able to maintain a dual-track career in the sense that I have been an active scholar in my original discipline of combustion in parallel to my work in engineering education.
My areas of interest/expertise:
- How students learn (development of expertise, deep/surface)
- Problem-based learning
- Team-based learning
- Creative process
- Ethics education
- Assessment of learning
- Diversity and inclusion in engineering education (a new area where I am developing my knowledge)
Proud moments:
- Distinguished Service Award, College of Engineering, 2012
- Elected as Fellow of ASEE (2008)
- Alumni Teaching Fellow, Penn State (2004)
- Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching, Penn State (1997)
- NSF Presidential Young Investigator (1987)
Favorite Leonhard Center Halloween and costume:
Gilligan’s Island with Mr. and Mrs. Leonhard
Costume: Mad Hatter
What to contact Tom for:
Email Tom if you want to know more about Leonhard Center and its many services or opportunities for project support.