Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D., who holds the Eugene Kranz Professorship for Excellence in Research in the School of Science and Engineering at Saint Louis University, has been chosen as one of the St. Louis Business Journal’s 40 Under 40.
Gorlewicz wears many hats at SLU. In addition to her role as a faculty member in aerospace and mechanical engineering, she serves as the associate dean of research and innovation and the department chair of aerospace and mechanical engineering.
Jenna Gorlewicz, Ph.D., in the Collaborative Haptics, Robotics and Mechatronics (CHROME) Lab. Photo by Sarah Conroy.
The annual list is published in the Nov. 7, 2025, issue of the Business Journal and recognizes 40 emerging St. Louis-area business leaders under the age of 40 who are highly engaged with the St. Louis community. Gorlewicz and her cohort were recognized at the 40 Under 40 celebration on Thursday, Nov. 6, at FanDuel Sports Network Live.
“I've been blessed with an outstanding team, colleagues, collaborators, family, and support network that create the day-to-day wins which translate into longer-term impacts,” she said. “It's a shared recognition that I'm humbled to receive.”
Gorlewicz also serves as the director of the Collaborative Haptics, Robotics, and Mechatronics (CHROME) Lab at SLU.
“In the CHROME Lab, we ask the bold question: what if we raised touch to the same level as sight and sound in our technologies?” Gorlewicz said. “At its heart, this is a question about connection — between people and technology, between communities and researchers, and between the future we imagine and the one we can build together.”
In her research, Gorlewicz and her team create wearable devices and consumer technologies that can provide information through touch. One project includes the development of haptic sleeves and watches, designed in collaboration with the protactile deafblind community, which enable the wearer to experience information through touch. Other projects focus on enhancing STEM education.
“We make touchscreens that don’t just display graphics, but let blind and low-vision users feel them,” she said. “We create tangible tools for classrooms that make abstract ideas come alive in learners’ hands.”
The work in CHROME is a collaborative process involving not only members of the SLU faculty and students, but also students from area high schools and collaborators in the community.
“In line with SLU’s mission, we design with, not for communities, and our team spans high school students to professional researchers, blind experts to deafblind collaborators, engineers to anthropologists — all united by the belief that touch can transform how we learn, heal, and connect,” she said.
Gorlewicz said the goal of the CHROME lab is not just to engineer new devices and technologies, but to make technology truly inclusive and multisensory.
Gorlewicz received her B.S. in mechanical engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville in 2008, and subsequently pursued her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering at Vanderbilt University. She joined SLU in 2015.
“What I enjoy about SLU is that it’s grounded in a higher purpose and a mission-driven vision that impacts all we do — from teaching and research to partnerships and collaboration — it’s about the greater good,” she said.
