Keith Molenaar has seen CEAS adapt for decades and now he plays a crucial role in its evolution
Nikki Edwards | Photos Courtesy of Dean's Office
Keith Molenaar’s resume is long and impressive, with job titles like “Expert Risk Analyst” for the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and contributions to projects like the expansion of the Panama Canal. This semester Molenaar is taking up one of the most distinguished jobs in the College of Engineering and Applied Science (CEAS): the dean’s position. ĚýĚý
The engineering school is putting their trust in Molenaar to uphold the college’s renowned reputation as interim dean while a committee conducts a national search for someone to fill the position long-term.Ěý
“The dean’s position is a difficult one. You’re leading a group of faculty, staff and students; that’s more than 8,000 people. You have to have someone who truly cares internally and externally," Molenaar said.
Molenaar has a long history with CU. ĚýAfter receiving his bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from CU, which he started in 1987, he worked at a startup construction management company in Boulder before returning to the university to obtain his doctoral and master’s degrees in civil engineering.
Molenaar’s first assistant professorship was at the Georgia Institute of Technology. But in 1999, he returned to Boulder to join the College of Engineering as an assistant professor of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering. He worked as the Associate Dean for Research before taking the position of interim dean of the College on Jan. 13, 2020.
Because of Molenaar’s history with CU and because of his close work with former Dean Bobby Braun in developing theĚýcollege's "Strategic Vision", Molenaar was a natural choice.Ěý
Provost Russell Moore selected Molenaar to fill the position, Ěýand according to CU Boulder Today, Moore said “Keith’s leadership of CEAS’s research mission, his excellence as a scholar and teacher and Ěýhis association with the college ensure the continued course of distinction that Bobby Braun has set for the college.”Ěý
"Even though I’ve only been here about six weeks, back in November and December, I began meeting with leadership from the departments, academic programs and research centers to make sure I could hear their concerns and goals,” Molenaar said. "I’ve been with the college for more than 20 years now and having this experience has really helped with the transition."
Tanya Ennis, director of the BOLD Center, has worked with Molenaar for the past decade. In those years she has witnessed his dedication to and investment in the college. “Keith has been here since I got here in 2009. He has a breadth of knowledge about the college and is continuously learning more about it”, Ennis said. “He has shown me that he has a willingness to learn. He’s willing to learn from students, faculty and staff to problem solve together, to be comfortable when it’s not comfortable.”
Molenaar’s excellence in research, his willingness to learn, and his collaborative approach are some of the reasons why he has been so successful at CU, as well as in the projects he is working on outside of CU. Molenaar was involved in work on the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the Panama Canal. He is currently working onĚýthe International Thermo Nuclear Energy Reactor (ITER) in France.Ěý
In an interview with the On CUE Podcast he said, “It [ITER] truly could change the world and bring us clean energy. If it works, and it very well could, it could generate clean energy by 2050 and [we could] have these all around the world.”
Molenaar is focused on advancing not only the school, but the world through the next generation of engineers. “We [the college] get to explore and invent our future, but we have to stay at the front edge because people look at us as leaders. We don’t want to be the taxi to higher education’s Uber, right? We want to be the creative ones. We’ll continue to innovate and I’m looking forward to it,” Molenaar said.Ěý