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Thün Appointed to University Leadership Role

Geoff Thün, a professor of architecture, has joined the University of Michigan’s Office of the Vice President for Research as the associate vice president for research for the social sciences, humanities, and the arts.

In this role, Thün will support the development of new interdisciplinary research initiatives that address important societal challenges. Working with teams from across the university’s Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses, he also will play a key role in advancing and elevating the university’s global reputation as a leader in research, scholarship and creative practice.

Since 2014, Thün has served as Taubman College’s associate dean for research and creative practice. In this role, he enhanced the strength and vitality of research across the architecture and urban and regional planning programs and worked with faculty to develop robust research trajectories. In so doing, he and the research and creative practice team identified and cultivated new research opportunities, facilitated new research collaborations, and developed partnerships among U-M faculty as well as external partners and organizations.

Operationally, Thün administered internal dissemination and seed funding to support new faculty initiatives, oversaw all funded research activity within the college, and engaged in operational and strategic planning for Taubman College’s research facilities, including the FabLab and Liberty Research Annex. He built up the culture and capabilities in research and creative practice at the college by creating policies, systems, and procedures to support faculty in navigating their research trajectories, including, most recently, a formalized faculty mentoring program that aims to deliver robust, equitable mentoring for faculty across career ranks.

“The college has benefited from Geoff’s strategic thinking and action-oriented mindset over the past seven years,” said Dean Jonathan Massey. “This new role at the University of Michigan Office of Research will allow a much greater range of people and programs to benefit from the leadership Geoff has demonstrated here. But at the same time, we are thrilled that he will remain on our faculty.”

Learn more about Thün’s research and practice, as well as his leadership at Taubman College, in a recent feature story.