President Mary Sue Coleman recently announced the appointment of David C. Munson, Jr., as the next Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, effective July 1, 2006, pending Regents' approval.

Dr. Munson has been chair and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan since 2003. During his time as chair, his department has increased its commitment to undergraduate and graduate programs, planned extensive renovation and expansion of research laboratories, improved its relationships with alumni and industry, and completed a comprehensive strategic-planning exercise.

Munson with EECS student Jonathan Cable flanked by
parents Bill and Marilyn. Cable was the recipient of the
2005 Junior Scholars Award.

Dr. Munson received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (with distinction) from the University of Delaware in 1975, and his MS, MA and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1977, 1977 and 1979, respectively. In 1979 he joined the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, research professor in the Coordinated Science Laboratory and a faculty member in the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

Munson with EECS Professor Ed Durfree at
2006 Planning Retreat.

His research interests are in the general area of signal and image processing with current work focused on radar imaging, passive millimeter-wave imaging, tomography and interferometry. Dr. Munson has authored or co-authored more than 160 professional publications, including books, book chapters, journal articles and articles in conference proceedings. He's affiliated with the Infinity Project, for which he co-authored a textbook on the digital world; approximately 200 high schools nationwide use the book to introduce students to engineering. He's held summer positions in digital communications and speech processing and he's served as a consultant in synthetic aperture radar to the Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory. He co-founded InstaRecon, Inc., a start-up company that provides fast solutions for image formation in medical and security imaging.

Munson with Jim Fausone (BS AOS '76, BS Env '76),
Interim Dean Ron Gibala and John Sanguinetti
(BS App/Math '70, MS '71, PhD '77) at 2005 Alumni
Society Awards Dinner.

Dr. Munson has held leadership positions in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Signal Processing Society, serving as president and as founding editor-in-chief of IEEE Transactions on Image Processing. In addition, he served as an elected member of the board of governors, chairman of the Multidimensional Signal Processing Technical Committee, and associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing. Dr. Munson also has been active in the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, serving as executive vice-president, elected member of the board of governors, and chairman of the Digital Signal Processing Technical Committee. He recently finished terms on the editorial board of Proceedings of the IEEE and as chair of the IEEE Jack Kilby Signal Processing Medal Committee.

Munson leads the 2006 St. George's Day parade.

Dr. Munson is a fellow of the IEEE. In 1990, he received the Outstanding Professor Award from the Alpha Chapter of Eta Kappa Nu. In 1995, he received the Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society and an Outstanding Alumnus Award from the University of Delaware College of Engineering. In 1998, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award from his department at the University of Illinois. He served as the Texas Instruments Distinguished Visiting Professor at Rice University in 1999. He was named an IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer and he received an IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000. In 2001, he was named the Robert C. MacClinchie Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois. He received the 2003 Society Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

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