Keith Molenaar’s term as interim and acting dean started in January 2020. From a transition perspective, Molenaar offered consistency and continuity when it came to the college, campus and university vision.
“Embracing our public educational mission is something I feel strongly about, and global engagement has long been a passion of mine,” he said. Molenaar was awarded the CU Campus Global Citizen of the Year Award in 2017. “But one of the things that I really want to focus on is enriching our professional environment. We, as a team, make this a place where you want to work and want to be. I would like us to continue down that path.”
His ties here date back to his time as an undergraduate in architectural engineering in the late 1980s. After working for a successful construction management start-up company, he returned to earn his MS and PhD in civil engineering in 1997. After starting as an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, he took the opportunity to return to the civil engineering faculty at CU Boulder. He became a full professor in 2011.
Molenaar’s teaching and research focus on risk and decision analysis, construction engineering and cost estimating for buildings and infrastructure projects. That has led to work on regional projects such as the skylights over the Denver Center for the Performing Arts to international efforts like the Panama Canal expansion project and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project in France — the project he said he’s most proud of in his career.
Read more about Keith Molenaar and follow him on Twitter: @KeithMolenaar.
- Keith Molenaar named dean of College of Engineering and Applied Science. (6/30/22)
- Provost extends College of Engineering dean search. (4/1/20)
- The College of Engineering and Applied Science launches a national dean search. (11/20/19)