Joanna Mirecki Millunchick became the dean of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering July 1, 2022.
At the Luddy School, Millunchick leads a multi-campus school of nearly 175 faculty members and 4,000 students at the Bloomington and Indianapolis campuses. She is also a professor of intelligent systems engineering with a research focus on equity-centered engineering, in which she studies the benefits of participating in co-curricular engineering activities and how to transfer those benefits to attract and retain students.
Millunchick joined Luddy from the University of Michigan, where she has served since 1997. She began her career at Michigan as an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and rose through the ranks to associate professor in 2004; full professor in 2010; and associate dean in 2017.
Millunchick's interest in administration developed as she sought a more direct impact on the academic policy that guides the student experience. As associate dean at Michigan, she oversaw the quality of the undergraduate program, which includes the first-year engineering program, academic success, scholastic standing, honor council, accreditation, the Technical Communication Department, and the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching in Engineering. Her support of experiential learning opportunities has led to creation of wide-ranging student opportunities such as international programs in engineering, the Center for Socially Engaged Design, the Center of Health Engineering and Patient Safety, and an experiential learning framework and web-based platform that helps students explore, engage, reflect, and communicate the professional competencies they have learned.
At Michigan, Millunchick also conducted research in materials science, where she developed nanoscale semiconductors for optoelectronic and photovoltaic applications. She also developed new virtual and augmented reality tools to help students learn concepts in the physical sciences.