Rate My Professor Matthew Mench

Matthew Mench serves as the Wayne T. Davis Dean's Chair, Chancellor's Professor, and Condra Chair, and Dean of the Tickle College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville since July 2021. He previously held positions as Interim Dean (March-June 2021), Interim Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement (2019-2020), and Head of the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering (multiple periods 2013-2021). Mench joined the University of Tennessee in 2010 as Professor with a 25% joint appointment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Energy and Transportation Science Division. Earlier in his career at Pennsylvania State University, he progressed from Assistant Professor/Research Associate (2000-2002) to Assistant Professor (2002-2007) and Associate Professor (2007-2010), where he founded the Fuel Cell Dynamics and Diagnostics Laboratory. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering (1994), MS in Mechanical Engineering (1996), and PhD in Mechanical Engineering (2000) from Pennsylvania State University, as well as an MBA (2022) from the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Mench's academic interests center on electrochemical power conversion and storage systems, including polymer electrolyte fuel cells, flow batteries, biological energy systems, multi-phase transport phenomena, computational modeling, and hazardous waste conversion via electrochemical methods. As Director of the Electrochemical Energy Storage and Conversion Laboratory, he has authored over 150 peer-reviewed publications garnering more than 12,500 citations and an h-index of 56. Notable works include the textbook Fuel Cell Engines (2008), "Redox flow batteries: a review" (2011, 2676 citations), and "A critical review of modeling transport phenomena in polymer-electrolyte fuel cells" (2014, 715 citations). He holds seven issued patents and has licensed technology to two startup companies. His contributions have earned him the 2020 Chancellor's Professor honor, Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher in Engineering (2014), NSF CAREER Award (2007), inclusion in the 2016 list of 150 Most Cited Scholars in Energy Research, and Fellow status in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Mench has served as associate editor emeritus for the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and associate editor for the ASME Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage, and is a frequent invited speaker at industry events, conferences, and universities.