Gary Mirka has been named the associate dean of the College of Engineering for undergraduate and graduate education.

“I will be responsible for coordinating educational activities in the College of Engineering,” Mirka said. “I’ll also be working with other colleges at Iowa State.”

The selection was made through an interview process led by Balaji Narasimhan, associate dean of research, and included an interview by a search committee. Recommendations from the interviews were passed along to Dean of Engineering Jonathan Wickert.

“We collected evaluations from everybody who participated in the interview process,” Narasimhan said. “The search committee had its own evaluation. Our job was to summarize that information and present it to the dean.”

The search was open to all the faculty in the College of Engineering. It was an internal search, Mirka said.

“Ultimately the decision was made by the dean,” said Eric Dieterle, director of engineering college relations.

Four associate deans report to the dean. Each of the four associate deans has an area of responsibility, which include research, extension, operations, and undergraduate and graduate education, Dieterle said.

“Mirka’s responsibilities are extensive and touch just about every aspect of the student experience,” Dieterle said.

Mirka is currently one of eight department chairpersons and a professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering. Mirka started at Iowa State in 2007.

“It was helpful that I’m currently a department chair[man] in industrial engineering,” Mirka said.

“He’s a very able and skillful leader and administrator. He’s done a lot in his department with respect to educational efforts both at the undergraduate and graduate levels,” Narasimhan said.

The move to make Mirka the associate dean of college undergraduate and graduate education will go into effect Jan. 3.