ECE welcomes new department head Professor Geir Dullerud

ECE welcomes Professor Geir Dullerud as the new head of the department. He will start his five-year term on Aug 25, 2025. Dullerud joins us from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) where he was the W. Grafton and Lillian B. Wilkins Professor in Mechanical Engineering, and an affiliate professor in both Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Computer Science. His research interests include optimization and machine learning in control, cyber-physical system security, cooperative robotics, and hybrid dynamical systems, and he is particularly interested in networked and mobile cyber-physical settings. 

At UIUC, Dullerud established and led the Illinois Center for Autonomy within the Grainger College of Engineering. The Center is focused on growing autonomy and robotics within Grainger College and the state of Illinois. Prior to establishing the Center for Autonomy, Dullerud was the director of the Decision and Control Group for 10 years in the Coordinated Science Laboratory at UIUC. As its director he broadened its research portfolio to include robotics and AI-powered automation. 

Vision for ECE

Dullerud recognizes that ECE with the breadth and strength of its course offerings is well positioned to pursue new opportunities in the changing landscape in both education as well as technology. To rise up to the new challenges while maintaining our core strengths, he sees opportunities in areas the department is already deeply engaged in particularly energy systems and power, semiconductors, biomedical devices and systems, quantum computing technology, AI and machine learning, and robotics.

Sharing his overall vision for ECE, Dullerud says, "This is a fantastic department and I am greatly looking forward to working with faculty, students, and staff to further establish the national and international recognition it merits. Building on the existing outstanding foundation and the stream of highly talented students, we will pursue new impactful research opportunities and innovative educational initiatives. These can be expected to enhance our departmental mission and have impact both at a fundamental level and with industry, and will continue to provide students with a wide range of exciting options."

Experience at UIUC 

Dullerud has extensively contributed to UIUC in service roles focused on faculty recruiting, promotion, and retention. Most recently, he chaired the Head Search Committee for the Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering Department, and the Faculty Search Subcommittee in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department in its search for faculty in robotics and autonomy. In addition to serving on his home department’s faculty search committee for almost 25 years, he has also served on the search committees for the Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, and Agricultural and Biological Engineering Departments. Dullerud was instrumental in expanding the robotics faculty at UIUC; his efforts have resulted in the hiring of more than 15 faculty across five departments. In alignment with his appreciation of the importance of retaining highly talented faculty, he has also served extensively on the promotion and tenure committees within the Grainger School and committees charged with faculty retention through endowed chairs, professorships, and fellowships.   

Research and professional education contributions

Dullerud has also made significant contributions to education and professional development within his areas of expertise. He was the Chair of the IEEE Fellows Evaluation Committee for the Control Systems Society for two years (2019 - 2020) prior to which he served in the roles of vice chair and member of the Committee. As Chair, he was responsible for selecting committee members each year from IEEE Fellows worldwide, and led the ranking process for Fellow nominations which would form the basis for the final IEEE Fellow decisions from the Control Systems Society. 

In 2019, Dullerud was the General Chair of the 8th IFAC Conference on Networked Systems (NecSys) held in Chicago. In 2024, he was the finance chair of the American Control Conference. He will be the General Chair for the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC) in 2029. Currently, he serves as a senior editor of the IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control (TAC). Prior to this, he served as the associate editor of the Journal of Optimization Theory and Applications (2020-2023), SIAM Journal of Control and Optimization (2015-2020), and IEEE TAC (2011-2013).

As the founding director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in his department at UIUC, he was responsible for gathering resources, forming mission-driven committees, supporting community-building efforts, engaging alumni for fundraising and advancement initiatives, and building a welcoming environment for all. 

Awards and honors

Dullerud was elevated to Fellow of the IEEE in 2008, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering in 2011. He delivered the plenary talks at the International Workshop on Frontiers of Autonomous Systems (2019), the 4th IEEE Symposium on Complex Systems and Cybernetics (2018), and the International Workshop on Operator Theory and its Applications (IWOTA, 2016). 

Geir Dullerud received his bachelor’s in engineering science and master’s in electrical engineering from the University of Toronto (in 1988 and 1990 respectively) and his Ph.D. in information engineering from Cambridge University in 1994.

In his spare time he enjoys numerous outdoor activities including skiing, canoeing, sailing, and hiking, and as everyone knows Minnesota offers terrific opportunities for all of them.