Mitchell Walker began his role as dean of the College of Engineering in June 2026.
As dean, Walker serves as the chief academic officer of the nation’s largest engineering program of its kind. He works with the associate deans and chairs for each of the College's eight schools while providing leadership to more than 500 faculty members and more than 21,000 students.
Mitchell Walker
Dean, College of Engineering
Walker has been a member of the Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering faculty since 2005 and served in several leadership positions, including associate chair for graduate studies and, most recently, school chair. Prior to his appointment as chair, he served in the dean’s office as the College’s associate dean for academic affairs.
Walker is known for his ability to bring together expertise and partners across schools and colleges to develop high-impact programming, including the interdisciplinary Minor in Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
He played a pivotal role in advancing the sustained advocacy that led to Georgia Tech securing $88 million in state funding for a new Aerospace Engineering Building. Under his leadership, the nation’s top-ranked public aerospace program built a compelling case through years of coordinated effort among faculty, staff, alumni, advisory board members, and past leaders. This momentum reflects Walker’s contributions to aligning academic excellence with strategic institutional advocacy to achieve a landmark investment for the Institute.
Walker is a respected leader in advanced propulsion research, focusing on experimental and theoretical studies of plasma propulsion concepts for spacecraft, including Hall thrusters, gridded ion engines, and vacuum facility effects. He directs Georgia Tech’s High-Power Electric Propulsion Laboratory and is principal investigator and director of the $15 million Joint Advanced Propulsion Institute (JANUS), a multi-university NASA Space Technology Research Institute. JANUS develops strategies to overcome limitations in ground testing of high-power electric propulsion systems, enabling and expanding their use in flight.
Walker is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and serves as a member of the organization’s Electric Propulsion Technical Committee. He is also an associate editor of the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets and serves on the editorial boards of Frontiers in Physics and Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences – Plasma Physics. In addition, he has delivered expert witness testimony to the Space Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives to help guide national investments in space propulsion technology.
His contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Young Investigator Award, the AIAA Lawrence Sperry Award, the AIAA Sustained Service Award, and the Georgia Power Professor of Excellence Award.
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