Joyce Main, the Kamyar Haghighi Head of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education.

Professor Joyce Main has been named the Kamyar Haghighi Head of Purdue University’s School of Engineering Education (ENE), effective Jan. 19. 

A Purdue ENE professor since 2011, interim head since June 2025, and distinguished contributor to her discipline, Main plans to build on the school’s pioneering foundation and continue advancing the ENE field.

“My overall goal is to elevate engineering education scholarship and practice nationally and globally,” said Main, whose research focuses on the academic and employment pathways of science and engineering students.

Her immediate priorities are to: 

• Focus on Purdue ENE people and their success, concentrating on the school’s strengths in the research enterprise, as well as in developing innovative programs in teaching and learning.

• Partner with Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts to launch ABET-accredited dual degrees in multidisciplinary engineering (MDE) and a major in liberal arts aligned with each student’s interest and trajectory.

Main expressed enthusiasm for “our people: our faculty, staff and students, who are responsible for ENE’s recognized leadership in research and innovations in teaching and learning,” and for “our connections, partnerships and collaborations with other College of Engineering schools and Purdue colleges, as well as with the larger engineering education community.”

The new ENE head said she is excited about enhancing the school’s impressive standing. Among the distinctions, she pointed out that ENE:

• Is the world’s first school of engineering education, established in 2004 and with more than 160 PhD graduates today.
• Is among the top externally funded engineering education programs in the U.S., with more than $50 million in cumulative funding from 2020 through 2025.
• Has a highly esteemed faculty, as more than 70% of Purdue ENE’s tenure-track/tenured faculty have received National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER awards, more than one-third are American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) fellows, and two have been inducted into the ASEE Hall of Fame.
• Is renowned internationally for innovations in undergraduate and graduate teaching and learning, especially for hands-on learning at scale.
• Offers a broad array of academic programs, including a PhD in engineering education, a graduate online MS in engineering education, a graduate certificate for teaching and learning in engineering, a BSE in MDE accredited by ABET, and a BSE in interdisciplinary engineering studies.

Main’s degrees include a PhD from Cornell University and an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Widely recognized as an engineering education leader, Main is co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Engineering Education, the flagship journal of the American Society for Engineering Education and the top journal for the engineering education field. In addition, she is an ASEE fellow, and she received an NSF CAREER grant to examine the longitudinal career paths of engineering PhDs. Her contributions have been honored with ENE’s 2024 Award for Excellence in Leadership, 2023 Award for Excellence in Mentoring, and 2022 Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.

The search advisory committee that selected Main was chaired by Milind Kulkarni, the Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Other committee members were ENE professors Khairiyah Mohd Yusof, Kirsten Davis, Sean Brophy, Ruth Wertz, Jason Morphew, Justin Hess and William Oakes, and as well as Kendra Erk, professor of materials engineering, representing First-Year Engineering.