Eric Michielssen named Associate Dean for Research

Eric Michielssen, the Louise Ganiard Johnson Professor of Engineering in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been appointed Associate Dean for Research (ADR) for the College of Engineering, pending Regental approval. The ADR provides support for the College of Engineering’s research enterprise, seeking to enhance the strength and vitality of engineering research. This is accomplished by identifying new research opportunities, encouraging research collaborations, and facilitating partnerships among faculty both within and outside of U-M as well as non-University individuals and organizations.

Michielssen has previously served as the University’s Associate Vice President for Advanced Research Computing, as Co-director of Precision Health, and as founding Director of the Michigan Institute for Computational Discovery and Engineering.  As Associate Vice President for Advanced Research Computing, Michielssen helped develop several new degree programs in computational and data science, and brought together faculty from disparate disciplines to tackle interdisciplinary problems using advanced computational methods.

His own research is focused on the development of fast and efficient algorithms for solving Maxwell’s equations, and their implementation on powerful parallel computers. He has applied his techniques to the characterization of semiconductor and microelectronic devices, photonic crystals and optical phenomena, aircraft scattering, antennas and wireless propagation, and more.

Michielssen’s research on fundamental algorithms is found in the codes and simulations of countless other researchers as well as commercially available simulators. The author of over 550 journal and conference papers, sixteen of his students and postdocs now hold faculty positions.

Michielssen has received numerous recognitions, including the URSI Koga Gold Medal and Booker fellowship, the IEEE AP-S Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award, the IEEE AP-S Sergei A. Schelkunoff Transactions Prize Paper Award, the ACES Computational Electromagnetics Award, and the IEEE AP-S Harrington-Mittra Award in Computational Electromagnetics. He is Fellow of IEEE.