Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,

I am very pleased to announce that Kenneth T. Christensen, the incoming Carol and Ed Kaplan Armour College Dean of Engineering, will join us a month earlier than expected, on November 1, 2020. This earlier start is possible because a successor for his previous position, chair of aerospace and mechanical engineering at Notre Dame, was secured earlier than expected. Ken has expressed to me his excitement about joining Illinois Tech as soon as possible. Indeed, he has already been deeply engaged in many facets of the university’s strategy and activities since June.

I also want to thank Natacha DePaola for her excellent and sustained leadership of Armour College. After more than 11 years as Armour dean, she will transition to become the director of a newly established center: the Illinois Tech Digital Medical Engineering and Technology (IDMET) Center. IDMET aims to integrate and apply advanced digital tools in life science research and education by incorporating their use across the biomedical engineering curriculum to accelerate student readiness in digital innovation practice. It will also support faculty research by advancing digital tools for modeling, simulation, and project management. IDMET will foster industry-academic collaborations and build on a corporate partner network for addressing contemporary challenges in health care. Dassault Systèmes (DS) is a founding sponsor of IDMET and has globally recognized it as the first “DS 3DEXPERIENCE Learning Center of Excellence in the Life Sciences” in the United States.

Please join me in welcoming Ken into the fold and in wishing Natacha well in her new endeavors.

Sincerely,

Peter Kilpatrick
Provost, Illinois Institute of Technology