Karen A. Thole has been appointed Robert J. Vlasic Dean of the University of Michigan College of Engineering. She is the director of the START (Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine) Laboratory at Pennsylvania State University and director of the Engineering Ambassadors Network. Thole earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.