Jenna Rickus

Dr. Rickus is the vice provost for teaching and learning at Purdue University. She is a professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering and a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering with expertise in biofunctional materials and biosensors. Prof. Rickus is an alumna of Purdue (BS ABE ’95, BS BCHM ’95) and spent time in industry as an engineer at Kraft Foods before receiving her Ph.D. in Neuroscience and Neuroengineering from UCLA. Her research focuses on engineered biomaterials for the sensing and actuation of living cells and tissues with a particular emphasis on the brain and pancreas. Materials from her lab have wide reaching applications for in vitro cell physiology, in vivo implantable cell and device-based therapeutics. Her lab has collaborated heavily with other researchers to integrate their materials into devices, implants, and 3D culture systems to create integrated platforms for sensing and actuating. With funding from NIH, NSF, USDA, NASA, the Army Research Office and DARPA, her research lab has developed new technologies with an impact on important problems in brain cancer, type 1 diabetes, foodborne illness and space biology.

As a faculty member, Dr. Rickus has also invested significantly in building, growing and strengthening academic programs, classroom teaching and transformational experiences for students. She founded the Purdue international genetically engineered machine (iGEM) undergraduate research team and is a member of the Howard Hughes Science Education Alliance bringing authentic research into the classroom.

Rickus has won numerous awards for her teaching, advising and research, including the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Biomedical Engineering Teaching Award, the Outstanding Advisor in the College of Engineering Award, the Erin Slater Mentoring Achievement Award, and the College of Engineering Research Team Award. In 2016, she was named a University Faculty Scholar and a Diversity Catalyst and was inducted into the Purdue Innovator’s Hall of Fame. Dr. Rickus is a 2019 alumnae of the ELATE (Executive Leadership on Academic Technology and Engineering) program.

In her current role as vice provost for teaching and learning, Dr. Rickus provides leadership to the Purdue campus in undergraduate education and student success.