Office
Atwater Kent 312
Areas of Research

Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Affiliated Department or Office
Education
AB Engineering Sciences Dartmouth College 1983
MS Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Rochester 1991
PhD Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Boston University 1994

John A. McNeill joined WPI in 1994 after nearly a decade in industry, and recently returned to the ECE department after serving in the Dean of Engineering office from 2018 to 2025.  He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Council for Undergraduate Research.

McNeill’s research interests include biomedical sensing, jitter (noise) in integrated oscillators, and digitally assisted calibration of analog-to-digital converters used in low-power sensor systems. Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (including a 1997 CAREER Award, the NSF’s most prestigious award for young faculty), other federal agencies, and industry, his research has resulted in seven patents and over 70 peer-reviewed papers and conference presentations.

In 1999, McNeill received the WPI Board of Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Teaching and he has won the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Electrical Engineering Professor Award three times (in 2000, 2008, and 2013). In 1995 he received the Joseph S. Satin Distinguished Fellowship in Electrical Engineering at WPI. In 2007 he was one of the two inaugural recipients of WPI’s Chairman’s Exemplary Faculty Prize, which honors outstanding faculty members for excellence “in all relevant areas of faculty performance.”

McNeill has served as a research and project advisor to numerous graduate and undergraduate students, often emphasizing design of cutting-edge mixed (analog + digital) integrated circuits and systems.

Affiliated Department or Office
Education
AB Engineering Sciences Dartmouth College 1983
MS Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Rochester 1991
PhD Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering Boston University 1994

John A. McNeill joined WPI in 1994 after nearly a decade in industry, and recently returned to the ECE department after serving in the Dean of Engineering office from 2018 to 2025.  He is a senior member of IEEE and a member of the American Society for Engineering Education, the National Academy of Inventors, and the Council for Undergraduate Research.

McNeill’s research interests include biomedical sensing, jitter (noise) in integrated oscillators, and digitally assisted calibration of analog-to-digital converters used in low-power sensor systems. Supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (including a 1997 CAREER Award, the NSF’s most prestigious award for young faculty), other federal agencies, and industry, his research has resulted in seven patents and over 70 peer-reviewed papers and conference presentations.

In 1999, McNeill received the WPI Board of Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Teaching and he has won the Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Electrical Engineering Professor Award three times (in 2000, 2008, and 2013). In 1995 he received the Joseph S. Satin Distinguished Fellowship in Electrical Engineering at WPI. In 2007 he was one of the two inaugural recipients of WPI’s Chairman’s Exemplary Faculty Prize, which honors outstanding faculty members for excellence “in all relevant areas of faculty performance.”

McNeill has served as a research and project advisor to numerous graduate and undergraduate students, often emphasizing design of cutting-edge mixed (analog + digital) integrated circuits and systems.

Office
Atwater Kent 312
Areas of Research

Life Sciences & Biotechnology

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being

SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being - Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

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SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy - Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

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SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

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SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

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SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

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Professional Highlights & Honors
WPI Chairman's Exemplary Faculty Award, 2007
WPI Trustees' Award for Outstanding Teaching, 1999
National Science Foundation CAREER award, 1997
WPI Joseph Samuel Satin Distinguished Fellowship for Outstanding Young ECE Professor, 1995
IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), Best Paper Award, 2005

News

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Boston Globe
The Los Angeles wildfires are thousands of miles away, but the science of fighting them happens in Worcester

The devastating wildfires in the Los Angeles area exemplify the dangers of wind-driven fires in inhabited areas. WPI’s Department of Fire Protection Engineering is leading research designed to understand how fires spread with the goal of contributing to measures that can better protect communities and firefighters. WPI’s research, which involves faculty and ongoing experiments conducted by students in a state-of-the-art wind tunnel on campus, was featured by several media outlets. NBC Boston's report was re-aired on more than a dozen television news stations in cities around the U.S. including Washington, DC, Minneapolis, Dallas, Albuquerque, Spokane, Yakima, WA, Fresno, CA, Albany, NY, Topeka, KS, Greenville, SC, Abilene, TX, and Elmira, NY.

Additional Publications: WCVB | NBC Boston | NECN | Spectrum News 1
PE Magazine
Still Wondering: Where Are the Women Engineers?

John McNeill, the Bernard M. Gordon Dean of the School of Engineering, and Oli Qirko, the North American president of Cambridge Consultants, Inc. and member of the advisory board for the School of Engineering, authored this op-ed regarding ways employers in STEM industries can foster inclusion and build the demand for women scientists and engineers. The piece also explores how project work, like WPI's educational model, serves as a successful example of best practices. The piece was published in PE Magazine, the flagship publication of the National Society of Professional Engineers.