Keith R. Molenaar is dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science and the K. Stanton Lewis Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder). His research and teaching focus on the application of emerging technologies and management practices to engineering design and construction, project delivery, and risk management.
As dean, he leads more than 9,000 faculty, staff, and students in meeting the mission for the state’s flagship engineering college. In 2023, the college achieved two major milestones. At 41% female in its first-year class, the college achieved the highest gender parity of the 167 public colleges of engineering in the US. In the same year, the graduate programs became ranked at #10 in the US News and World Report for public colleges of engineering.
He is the primary author of more than 250 technical reports and articles. He has written national guidance documents for the American Associations of State Transportation Officials, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Transportation Research Board. He has performed project delivery and risk-related work for a variety of projects including the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York, the SR520 Floating Bridge in Washington State, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in California, the Panama Canal Expansion in Panama, the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility/Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in Illinois and South Dakota, and the ITER Fusion Project in France.
Molenaar holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural Engineering and Master of Science and Doctoral degrees in Civil Engineering from CU Boulder. Before returning to the CU Boulder, he was a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was inducted into the Pan-American Academy of Engineering in 2012 and the National Academy of Construction in 2017 for his leadership in civil engineering research and practice throughout the Americas.
