Heath Hofmann receives 2025 Herbert Kopf Service Excellence Award

Prof. Heath Hofmann has received the 2025 Herbert Kopk Service Excellence Award from the College of Engineering for his leadership in Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and his extraordinary contributions to ECE’s graduate student population.

During his time as Graduate Chair for ECE’s approximately 700 graduate students, Hofmann co-developed the one-credit course, Skills for Success in Graduate Studies, for incoming graduate students. The course provides these students with tools and resources to succeed in their academic work while also focusing on overall well-being. The students found the course to be extremely valuable.

In the area of graduate student recruiting, Hofmann worked with staff to introduce a new workshop for prospective students that can be offered in-person or virtually, and attended each session. He expanded the list of schools where ECE actively recruits and visited these schools himself. During his visits to well-known affinity groups such as the Society of Women Engineers, the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, and the National Society of Black Engineers, Hofmann was highly effective at relating to the students.

He also created a highly successful new department policy to promote Rackham Merit Fellowships (RMFs) within ECE. He followed this up by creating a department-level fellowship modeled after the RMF. These efforts have resulted in a larger pool of excellent candidates.

Some important responsibilities of being a Graduate Chair include advocating for graduate students in their time of need and fostering a positive culture for students in the department. Many of these efforts are confidential, only known to students who have benefited from his interventions and those in the same position. 

“I am impressed with how Heath navigated such situations and can only hope that I meet his standard as Grad Chair,” said incoming Graduate Chair, Prof. Peter Seiler.

In addition to excelling as Graduate Chair, Hofmann has served as Area Director in Power Systems since 2020. In this role, he was instrumental in the hiring of new faculty in this area. He organized and offers ECE’s Power Up summer camp, which introduces high school students to power and energy concepts, including the basics of electrical engineering, with applications to electric vehicles. He is also a member of the Rackham Academic Integrity Hearing Board. 

Hofmann received the Staff-Faculty Partnership Award, the Jon R. and Beverly S. Holt Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Ted Kennedy Family Team Excellence Award from the College of Engineering. He is an inventor on 18 U.S. patents, and he is an IEEE Fellow.