Sean Bentley

I completed my BS (95) and MS (97) in electrical engineering at the University of Missouri-Rolla (now Missouri S&T), where I was inducted into the Gamma Theta Chapter.  I was active in the Chapter, including serving a term as president.  I was also an officer in the student branch of IEEE, and was named IEEE UMR Student Branch Outstanding Member for 1994-1995.  During my masters, I also served as secretary for the Optical Society of Greater St. Louis.  I completed my PhD (04) in optics at the University of Rochester.

From 2003-2009, I was an Assistant Professor of Physics at Adelphi University (Long Island, NY), and since 2009 have been an Associate Professor.    During that time, I was awarded a patent for an optical lithography process and have numerous publications and professional presentations.  More importantly to me, in the past 20 years, I have mentored the research of 55 undergraduates, including 29 from unrepresented groups in physics and engineering.  I was awarded the 2013 Adelphi University Tenured Teaching Excellence Award, and the 2022 David Halliday and Robert Resnick Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Physics Teaching from the American Association of Physics Teachers, the top national prize for undergraduate physics teaching.

From 2010-2014, I served on the National Council of the Society of Physics Students.  From 2014-2015, I served as Director of the Society of Physics Students and Sigma Pi Sigma (the physics honor society) at the American Institute of Physics.  I was elected into the Academy of Electrical & Computer Engineering of the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 2016.  I served as IEEE-HKN Regions 1 & 2 Governor for 2018-2019, and served as the chair of the IEEE-HKN Faculty Advisor Committee from 2018-2020, during which time I helped lead the effort in which resources to aid Chapter advisors were created and others greatly revised.  I was awarded Senior Member status in IEEE in 2020.  For the past two years, I have served on the Editorial Board of IEEE-HKN The Bridge, and have served as guest editor on two issues.