July 15, 2013
UW welcomes Michael Bragg, dean of the College of Engineering
The UW on Monday (July 15) welcomed Michael B. Bragg as dean of the College of Engineering.
Bragg most recently was professor and interim dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
An aeronautical engineer by training, Bragg has held numerous leadership positions at Illinois, including head of the aerospace engineering department, associate dean for research and administrative affairs, executive associate dean for academic affairs, and interim dean in the College of Engineering.
Bragg’s primary area of research is aircraft icing where he is an international expert on the effect of ice accretion on aircraft aerodynamics and flight safety. He directed over $15 million in externally funded research and published more than 200 research papers. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and has received several national awards for his work.
As associate dean for research and administration, Bragg oversaw the administration of all personnel and financial matters in the college, all physical facilities, and administration of the research program and the graduate programs. As executive associate dean for academic affairs he was responsible for all faculty and academic personnel and the strategic management of the over $300 million budget of the college.
Bragg has grown education programs and championed diversity. As a department head, he increased the department’s graduate program by 30 percent and more than doubled the percentage of women in graduate school and on the department’s faculty. At the college level he has been instrumental in developing innovative programs to recruit a more diverse engineering faculty.