Kenneth Christensen

Provost & Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Illinois Institute of Technology

Biography

Kenneth T. Christensen is the Provost, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Chief Academic Officer at the Illinois Institute of Technology, after serving in an interim capacity for one year. He joined Illinois Tech in November 2020 as the Carol and Ed Kaplan Dean of the Armour College of Engineering, with a joint appointment in Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering and Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. As Dean, Christensen has focused on enhancing student experience and success, as well as improving the industry relevance of Illinois Tech’s engineering curricula via strategic partnerships to ensure they better meet workforce needs. He continues to do so as Provost while also expanding the academic offerings of Illinois Tech to maximize access by meeting learners where they are. Before this, he was the Viola D. Hank Professor at the University of Notre Dame and served as Chair of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering (2017-2020), Assistant Dean for Faculty Development (2015-2017), and a Provost Fellow (2017-2019). Prior to August 2014, he was a Professor and Kritzer Faculty Scholar in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he also served as Associate Department Head (2012-2014) and Associate Director of the International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research (I2CNER) Satellite Center (2011-2014). His research expertise is in experimental fluid mechanics, with an emphasis on flows central to a range of energy, environmental, and geophysical applications, and he is a Fellow of multiple professional societies (ASME, APS, and AAAS).