Professor will chair organization supporting women in science, engineering

LAWRENCE — The Member and Geographic Activities Assembly of the Institute of Engineering and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional organization with over 429,000 members in 160 countries, recently selected Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, professor of mathematics, courtesy professor of the departments of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Aerospace Engineering, and an investigator at the Information & Telecommunication Technology Center at the University of Kansas, as the 2017 Global Chair of the IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Committee

In this role she oversees the world’s largest professional organization supporting women in science and engineering. The IEEE WIE is a vibrant community of women and men collectively using their diverse talents to innovate for the benefit of humanity. She leads an organization with more than 700 affinity groups and over 18,000 members in more than 40 countries with its mission to inspire and engage the next generation of girls and women in STEM and to advance women within the field through awards, visibility and career development. In this capacity, she leads a committee with nine international members at large, more than 45 technical society liaisons, and ten geographic region coordinators and staff.

Each year, the organization affects over 50,000 individuals including pre-university students, university undergraduates and graduates, and women in the profession through close to 1,000 activities including outreach events introducing STEM to young girls and humanitarian projects enhancing the lives of communities through the application of technology and technical and professional development seminars, workshops, conferences and online presentations.

In her role she delivers invited keynote talks at the organization’s congresses and summits around the globe. She was recently a keynote speaker in Canada and India.