Jenna Rickus

Dr. Jenna Rickus Jenna Rickus has been named Senior Vice Provost at the University of Arizona, effective Sept. 29.  In this newly created role, Rickus will facilitate collaboration and coordination among Academic Affairs, Campus Community Connections, Faculty Affairs, University Analytics and Institutional Research (UAIR), and the University Center for Assessment, Teaching, and Technology (UCATT). She most recently served as  Senior Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at Purdue University. She is a bioengineer and interdisciplinary scholar specializing in biofunctional materials and biosensors. Her research centers on engineered biomaterials for sensing and interacting with living cells and tissues, particularly in the brain and pancreas. Dr. Rickus co-founded a collaborative Physiological Sensing Facility to develop new technologies with applications in cell physiology, implantable therapeutics, and integrated sensing platforms. Her work addresses critical challenges including brain cancer, diabetes, foodborne illness, and space biology and has been supported by major agencies including the NIH, NSF, NASA, and DARPA.

She earned degrees from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience and NeuroEngineering from University of California, Los Angeles.