Keith W. Buffinton is Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Bucknell University. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Tufts and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford. Following his graduate studies, he worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Institute for Mechanics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland. From 2001 through 2004 he served as co-director of Bucknell's Institute for Leadership in Technology and Management and from 2003 through 2007 as Associate Dean of the College of Engineering. In 2003 he received Bucknell’s Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching.
Prof. Buffinton’s scholarly interests range across the areas of multibody dynamics, nonlinear control, mechanical design, systems thinking, entrepreneurship, engineering management education, and his primary research focus, the dynamics and control of robotic systems. He has been the recipient of external grants from a number of funding agencies including the National Science Foundation, the Office of Naval Research, the Ben Franklin Technology Center of Pennsylvania, and most recently the Kern Family Foundation. As Dean of Engineering, Prof. Buffinton has particularly sought to enhance support for students from under-resourced backgrounds as well as to promote the creation of an Ecology of Entrepreneurship by becoming part of the Kern Entrepreneurship Education Network. Prof. Buffinton is a member of the Executive Board of the ASEE Engineering Deans Council and Co-Chair of the ASEE EDC Undergraduate Experience Committee.
