The second of the four finalists in the University of Arizona’s provost search is, like the first candidate, coming from Purdue University.
Jenna L. Rickus, senior vice provost for teaching and learning at Purdue, has held numerous positions in 22 years at the university, where she is a professor of agricultural and biological engineering in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.
Rickus is set to arrive on the UA campus Thursday, March 20, for in-person interviews and meetings. Her visit will begin with an open forum session where administrators, faculty, students and staff may ask her questions. It will be at 9 a.m. Thursday at UA’s Meinel Optical Sciences building.
Her roles at Purdue included associate and assistant professor positions, associate department head of agricultural and biological engineering, vice provost for teaching and learning, vice provost and acting dean in the John Martinson Honors College.
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and agricultural engineering from Purdue in 1995, Rickus earned her PhD in neuroscience and neuroengineering from UCLA.
Jenna Rickus
The first finalist in the provost search, Eric Landon Barker, whose UA campus forum was on Tuesday, is Purdue’s vice president for health affairs and College of Pharmacy dean. UA has not yet released the names of the other two finalists.
UA President Suresh Garimella was a Purdue administrator before becoming president of the University of Vermont. He joined UA on Oct. 1 from Vermont.
Prior to the search for a provost, to succeed Interim Provost Ron Marx, UA has recently brought in other officials from Purdue and Vermont.
Tomás Díaz de la Rubia, the UA’s new senior vice president for research and innovation, worked at Purdue from 2015-19 in various roles. Richard Cate, UVM’s vice president for finance and administration, was appointed by Garimella in January as a special advisor on finances and budgets.
According to Purdue’s website, Rickus’ research focuses on “engineered biomaterials for the sensing and actuation of living cells and tissues with a particular emphasis on the brain and pancreas.”
With funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Agriculture Department, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Army Research Office and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, “her research lab has developed new technologies with an impact on important problems in brain cancer, type 1 diabetes, foodborne illness and space biology,” the website shows.
Rickus recently received Purdue College of Engineering’s “Most Impactful Inventors” award, an Alumni Achievement Award at the Mortar Board National College Honor Society in 2023, a Diversity Catalyst Award at Purdue in 2016, Student-Selected Favorite Faculty Award in 2015, and more.
Her current responsibilities include: overseeing undergraduate education and student success during Purdue’s rapid enrollment growth and increases in four-year graduation rates, and overseeing a leadership team of one dean, vice provosts and executive directors with a $25 million annual operating budget. She monitored academic continuity during COVID-19 as a member of the president’s Protect Purdue leadership team.
Before this, as vice provost and acting dean for the John Martinson Honors College, which has more than 3,500 students, 23 faculty members, 36 staff members and a $10 million budget, Rickus achieved a 21% increase in honors student applications, increased the college’s ranking from No. 18 to No. 8, expanded the urban campus location and achieved a 40% increase in new honors undergraduate research projects.
