New dean to lead innovation at Polytechnic

ASU has appointed Keith Hjelmstad as the new vice president and dean of the College of Technology and Innovation at the Polytechnic campus, pending approval of the Arizona Board of Regents.

Hjelmstad is a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and former associate dean of academic affairs in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and will succeed Albert McHenry, vice president of ASU’s Polytechnic campus and former dean of the college.

As the new dean of the College of Technology and Innovation, Hjelmstad will lead the core college at the Polytechnic campus and work to coordinate its programs with those of the other units. In addition, he also will serve as a university vice president, championing the further development of the Polytechnic campus.

“Dr. Hjelmstad has the skills to construct the College of Technology and Innovation into a national leader in engineering and engineering technology, while enhancing ASU’s relationships with the communities surrounding the Polytechnic campus,” says ASU President Michael Crow.

“I am delighted that he has agreed to join the ASU leadership team.”

Hjelmstad has nearly 25 years of higher education experience, with more than 10 years of experience in administrative roles.

“Dr. Hjelmstad has a creative approach to engineering and technology education that fits the polytechnic model,” says Elizabeth D. Capaldi, ASU’s provost and executive vice president. “He will lead the campus and the university in an innovative approach that bridges to industry and produces highly employable graduates.”

“There is so much written these days about the need for institutions of higher education to respond to the evolving needs of our planet,” Hjelmstad says. “In ASU, I saw movement to match the rhetoric.”

Hjelmstad’s research has focused on computational mechanics, earthquake engineering, stability of structures, optimization, structural identification, nondestructive evaluation of large structures and numerical simulation of complex structures.

Hjelmstad is a member of the science steering committee of the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets at the University of Illinois. He also is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Academy of Mechanics, the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, the Structural Stability Research Council, and the International Association for Structural Safety and Reliability.

In addition, he also serves on Task Committee 3 of the American Institute of Steel Construction Committee on Specifications. He serves as associate editor of the Journal of Constructional Steel Research and the ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering.

In 1987, Hjelmstad was the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator award and the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Alfred Noble Prize. In 1993 he was named a University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been recognized several times at the University of Illinois for excellence in teaching and advising, including the 2002 Robert E. Miller Award for Excellence in Teaching Mechanics and the 2002 Campus Award for Excellence in Advising Undergraduate Students.

Hjelmstad earned his doctoral and master’s degrees in civil engineering from the University of California-Berkeley, and his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Colorado State University.

Pending Arizona Board of Regents approval, his appointment will take effect July 1.