Getting to Know You: Bob Bernhard, Incoming I-INCE President

Quick Stats
Name: Bob Bernhard
Title: Vice President for Research, University of Notre Dame
Location: South Bend, Indiana, USA
Years with I-INCE: I’ve been a member of INCE-USA (one of the member societies of I-INCE) since about 1982 and have been a member of the board of directors of I-INCE since about 2000.
Born and raised: On a typical family farm in northern Iowa, USA, in the 1950s and 1960s.
Education: BS in Mechanical Engineering, PhD in Engineering Mechanics from Iowa State University, and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Favorite music artist: Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan
Favorite pastime or hobby: Hanging out at the beach on Lake Michigan
Favorite sports team (if applicable): Notre Dame Women’s Basketball (2018 national champions)
Career
What is the most important part of your job?
Growing the research and scholarship programs at Notre Dame. The university has
very high aspirations and has given us the resources to build the research
programs commensurate with the reputation of a great university of the twenty-first
century.
What’s the best part about I-INCE?
I’ve been involved with I-INCE for a long time and worked with outstanding
people from across the world. The strength of I-INCE is the INTER-NOISE
congresses that continue to grow and evolve. I’m encouraged to see new topics
and new faces every year. I take these as great signs of the importance and
vitality of I-INCE. But I’m also pleased to see other activities of I-INCE. The
Young Professionals Program is a great success at connecting younger noise
control engineers with our profession. I congratulate Patricia Davies and her
predecessor, Raj Singh, for growing this program. I hope we can continue to
develop additional programs than promote noise control, disseminate
understanding of noise control principles, and connect practitioners worldwide.
What do you want people to know about I-INCE during your tenure?
For my tenure as president, I plan to focus on renewal and inclusion. I plan to
visit as many of the member societies as possible, either for leadership
meetings or for annual technical conferences. In ways large and small, I am
hoping to listen to members of the member societies to understand how I-INCE
can be even more relevant to their professional lives and how we can include
them in our activities.
Personal
Tell us about your family.
My wife Deb and I have 4 grown children: 3 sons and a daughter. They are all
engineers and all live on the East Coast of the United States. Two are married.
We have 4 grandchildren, all boys, including a pair of 18-month-old twins.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
All I imagined as a child was getting a professional job that would be secure.
I would never have envisioned the career path that eventually played out. I’ve
been blessed with surprise opportunities at various points that I had not
anticipated. I’ve also been blessed that the opportunities were always great
learning opportunities that ultimately led to my current position, which is a
great fit to my talent, experience, and personality.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
I’ve had great mentors who helped me identify my weaknesses and see how I was
perceived by others. They also introduced me to literature in organizational
psychology that I’ve found both relevant to my positions and interesting.
Collins’s book Good to Great had the
most influence on me, but a number of other books, including those by Stephan
Covey and Daniel Pink, have had a significant influence on my thinking.