John G. Bollinger is a teacher, researcher, administrator, and consulting engineer. Now retired from the university, he served on the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty from 1960 through 2000, and was a FulbrightFellow to Germany in 1962-63 and England in 1980-81. In Germany, he worked at the Machine Tool and IndustrialOrganization Institute in Aachen. In England, he was a Visiting Professor at the Cranfield Institute of Technologyduring which time he also lectured at technical universities in Europe, and concluded his leave of absence in Juneof 1981 as Visiting Professor at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He served as a Visiting Professor at theUniversity of Washington during the 1999-2000 academic year and the winter quarter in 2001.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dr. Bollinger served as Director of the Data Acquisition and SimulationLaboratory, and as Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, before assuming the position of Deanof the College of Engineering in July of 1981 until September 1999.
As a businessman, Dr. Bollinger has served on the Board of Directors of numerous companies including: theRexnord Corporation; Cross and Trecker Corporation; Nicolet Instrument Corporation; EforM CorporationCorporation; Marquette Medical Systems; Unico Incorporated; Andrew Corporation; Kohler Company; BemisCompany, Inc.; Cummins Allison Corporation (current); and Berbee Information Systems. He served as Chairman of Unico for six years. As a board member, he has served on committees such as Audit, Human Resources,Compensation and Technology, and has chaired numerous committees. Dr. Bollinger was also a member of theTechnical Advisory Board of the Johnson Controls, Battery Group International. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, ASME, ASEE, a Fellow of the SME, and past President of CIRP.
Professionally, Dr. Bollinger has worked in the fields of structural analysis, vibration and noise control, automatic controls, computer control of machines and processes, and robotics and machine intelligence. He has published over one hundred technical papers, two textbooks, one on automatic controls, and the most recent on computercontrol of machine and processes, and holds eleven patents. He founded and served as editor of the Journal of Manufacturing Systems.
Professor Bollinger initiated the innovation and entrepreneurial program at Wisconsin with the creation of student award competitions for invention and business plan development. The program has become a joint venturebetween the College of Engineering and the School of Business. After retiring as Dean, he created a new course:"Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship," which he taught at the University of Washington and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dr. Bollinger currently shares his time between his home in Madison, a sailboat on the West Coast and skiing in Colorado--along with many hobbies, including woodworking, ham radio operation, yacht maintenance, swimming and sking. He is an active consultant. He spends most of the winter months in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he owns a condominium and served as President of Playa Vista Management AC. He is a member of the Vallarta Yacht Club and a former Board Member and club chief regatta officer.
Dr. Bollinger and his wife spend most of the summer months on their canal barge in France cruising rivers and canals.