Kristin K. Wobbe is associate dean for undergraduate studies and director of Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Great Problems Seminars, an interdisciplinary project-based course for first-year students recognized by the NAE as a real world engineering education experience. Since she assumed leadership of this program it has grown from four to nine offerings per year and now serves about a third of WPI’s entering students. The courses provide context and motivation for first-year students to persist in engineering and science, while also developing their professional competencies and confidence.

In addition to teaching in the Great Problems Seminars, Dr. Wobbe runs a development program for faculty interested in participating in the seminars and serves on the steering committee for the Institute on Project-Based Learning. Before assuming the deanship, she was head of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. She has won teaching awards including WPI’s Romeo Moruzzi Young Faculty Award for Innovation in Undergraduate Education.

Dr. Wobbe earned her BA from St. Olaf College and her PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology at Harvard University.