![]() ![]() Photo: Brenda Ahearn/Michigan Engineering McNeil Department Chair of Robotics.Īlec Gallimore presents Dawn Tilbury with a medal in 2022. As sensor technology advanced and brought to light robotics’ true potential, he supported faculty from mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering and electrical engineering and computer science coalescing around the emerging discipline-led by Dawn Tilbury, who is now the Ronald D. His charge as an associate dean gave it new momentum. The idea of robotics as something like an institute had been explored in the 1980s but hadn’t gone anywhere, he says. ![]() These achievements grew out of the first assignment Dave Munson, the previous dean, gave Gallimore back in 2011. Through a unique agreement, the fourth floor houses Ford’s first robotics and mobility research lab on a university campus. Under Gallimore’s tenure, the College developed the first Robotics Department at a top-10 US engineering school and put researchers from 23 different buildings and ten Top 10 programs together under one roof in the $75 million Ford Motor Company Robotics Building. Learn more about Gallimore’s storied history of a leading space propulsion lab In various leadership positions, Gallimore led, co-led and supported efforts to overcome these barriers. But academia’s conventional structure and the siloed nature of funding bodies mean that it’s hard to build the coalitions needed to approach those problems. It has long been known that the most interesting and urgent problems lay at the boundaries of different disciplines. In the dean’s office, he launched innovative seed funding programs and advanced new ways to connect researchers across fields of study and beyond academia. ![]() ![]() His lab transformation required ingenuity and dedication-qualities he brought to his leadership as well. Alec Gallimore, Ben Jorns and PEPL researchers stand in the vacuum chamber. Today, researchers there are testing thrusters that are among the most promising to carry humans to Mars. The abandoned “space simulation chamber” he inherited as an assistant professor became the largest vacuum chamber of its kind at a US university. Ultimately, he led the development of a new way to approach the teaching and practice of engineering that promises not only to create a research environment that facilitates solving the problems of the day, but also to equip tomorrow’s engineers with the knowledge and tools to build solutions that don’t exacerbate societal gaps-solutions that serve everyone.Īdvancing research-fundamentals and convergenceĭuring his decades as a U-M faculty member, Gallimore upcycled an Apollo-era lunar rover testing facility into one of the world’s leading electric propulsion research labs. Gallimore founded the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Laboratory at Michigan in 1992. In the background, graduate students and professor Ben Jorns adjust equipment. Alec Gallimore inside the PEPL thruster chamber. Gallimore worked to support and grow the ranks of students, staff, faculty members and leaders from historically underrepresented groups, while at the same time welcoming diversity of perspectives. He stood up for diversity in all forms and took the concept of inclusion to heart. The legacy he leaves is a bold vision, not only for the College, but for the future of the field of engineering.Īs a leader, Gallimore encouraged collaboration across disciplines and organizations-and made that easier for faculty members, students and staff to accomplish with unconventional programs and facilities. Vlasic Dean of Engineering Alec Gallimore has served Michigan Engineering as a connector, a broadener of perspectives, and a champion for the strong engineering fundamentals that made him who he is. From his start as a rocket scientist and educator 30 years ago, departing Robert J. ![]()
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