Douglas Van Citters ’99, Thayer ’03, ’06, a biomedical engineer and expert in orthopedic biomaterials and artificial joints, has been named the 14th dean of Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, Provost Santiago Schnell and President Sian Leah Beilock announced today. He will assume his new role on July 1.
Van Citters, who has served as interim dean for the past 18 months and on the Dartmouth Engineering faculty for nearly two decades, was selected following a national search. He succeeds Alexis Abramson, who departed in December 2024 to lead the Climate School at Columbia University.
“It’s a privilege to lead a school that has shaped every dimension of my career from the moment I first entered Thayer’s doors in 1995,” Van Citters says. “What drew me here, and what keeps me here, has remained the same: a community of people who believe that engineers have a responsibility to ask not only ‘Can we build it?,’ but also to ask ‘Should we build it and for whom?’ That philosophy runs through everything we do here, and it’s what I intend to protect and strengthen as dean.”
“An outstanding scholar, skilled leader, and thoughtful teacher, Doug Van Citters is a compelling advocate for Thayer’s distinctive model of human-centered engineering,” says Provost Schnell. “He understands how to connect the school’s strengths in innovation, scholarship, and translational research with Dartmouth’s broader ambitions in science, technology, and human impact.”
As interim dean, Van Citters led the launch of a new BE financial aid initiative that aims to guarantee financial aid and scholarship support for engineering students who pursue a bachelor of engineering degree in a fifth year following a bachelor of arts. He also saw the construction of the West End Fabrication facility through completion, a space that will open as northern New England’s first public nanofabrication foundry next academic year.
During his tenure, the school introduced several new academic tracks in artificial intelligence, including the launch of the new Master of Engineering in AI and a new AI concentration in the BE program. At this year’s Commencement, the school will celebrate the graduation of its inaugural cohort of the online MEng in Computer Engineering, Dartmouth’s first fully online degree.
“Doug Van Citters is a prolific and innovative researcher who has played a key role in strengthening Dartmouth Engineering as a professor and as its interim dean,” says President Beilock, a cognitive scientist who co-taught a course last year with Van Citters. “He has been a dedicated mentor to hundreds of students, and he embodies Dartmouth and the leaders we produce through a world-class, human-centered engineering education.”
Among Thayer’s research strengths are biomedical engineering—deepened by collaborations with the Geisel School of Medicine and Dartmouth Health—and polar, ice, and extreme-environment engineering, where Dartmouth scholars are advancing understanding of climate, infrastructure, and environmental change.
Prior to his interim dean appointment, Van Citters served as Thayer’s associate dean for undergraduate education and chair of the Department of Engineering Sciences, serving as a liaison between engineering and the liberal arts during the critical formation phase of the new School of Arts and Sciences.
“I have been fortunate to work alongside Doug frequently in his capacity as interim dean,” says Nina Pavcnik, who was recently named inaugural dean of Arts and Sciences. “He has been a thoughtful and collaborative partner to us, and I look forward to our continued partnership in enhancing the student experience and in elevating Dartmouth’s research impact.”
“We have extraordinary colleagues, remarkable students, and a mission that matters. I’m excited to lead Thayer at a moment when Dartmouth is thinking ambitiously about its future. I’m ready to get to work,” Van Citters says.
As an undergraduate at Dartmouth, Van Citters was drawn to the opportunity to study engineering while also rowing for the men’s heavyweight crew team. He graduated magna cum laude in 1999 with a bachelor of arts in engineering sciences and environmental earth sciences. A two-time Academic All-Ivy honoree, he was later inducted into the Dartmouth Crew Hall of Fame.
After graduation, he spent two years working as a hydrogeologist before returning to Dartmouth, where he earned his BE and MS in 2003 and his PhD in engineering sciences in 2006. His dissertation examined the mechanical properties and performance of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene used in total joint replacement.
Van Citters joined Dartmouth’s engineering faculty in 2007 and was appointed to the tenure-line faculty in 2010. In 2012, he served as a visiting scientist at the Mayo Clinic in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery’s Biomechanics Laboratory. At Dartmouth, he holds adjunct appointments in orthopaedics at the Geisel School of Medicine and in chemistry in the School of Arts and Sciences.
Van Citters, whose research focuses on biomaterials, biomechanics, tribology, and design of artificial joints, leads the Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center for Orthopaedics, home to one of the largest collections of retrieved artificial joints in the world. To date, he and his research team have produced more than 130 peer-reviewed publications and hold more than a dozen patents, with additional pending.
Throughout his career, he has advised more than 300 students across doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s degree programs, and has served as a consultant for numerous student startup ventures rooted in research conducted at Dartmouth.
His service to Dartmouth extends beyond the classroom and laboratory. Van Citters has served as faculty adviser to the men’s heavyweight rowing team, and has since broadened that support to student-athletes across a variety of sports. From 2020 to 2025, he also served as the NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative for Dartmouth.
And in 2018, when Dartmouth faced the potential loss of the Homecoming bonfire permit over safety concerns, Van Citters applied engineering principles to redesign a structure that collapses more predictably. Every Homecoming bonfire since has been built to his design.
The classes of 1964 and 2014 last year selected Van Citters as the recipient of the 1964/2014 James Wright ’64a Outstanding Leadership Award, which is given in recognition of responsible leadership in the ongoing life of the College, particularly with the undergraduate student body.
Van Citters and his wife Aricca Van Citters ’99, Geisel ’05, a senior research scientist at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, are active volunteers in the Upper Valley community. He is the current president of the Montshire Museum Corporation and a past chair of the Friends of Hanover Norwich Schools. They live in Hanover with their children Nicholas, Donovan, and Lilian.
“Doug was among a slate of exceptional candidates put forward for consideration,” says Mathieu Morlighem, the Evans Family Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences who chaired the search committee. “What set him apart was his compelling vision for Thayer, his record of proven leadership, and the trust he has built across the Thayer and Dartmouth communities. He also brings a deep understanding of Dartmouth’s history, our values, and our place in the world. It was clear that he is the right person to lead Thayer into its next chapter.”
In addition to Morlighem, the search committee included:
- Todd Cook ’93, Thayer ’94, chair of Thayer’s Board of Advisors;
- Professor Eric Fossum, vice provost for entrepreneurship and technology transfer and director of the PhD Innovation Program;
- Steve Leach, interim dean of Geisel School of Medicine;
- Lauren Xiaoyuan Lu, the Norman W. Martin 1925 Professor of Business Administration at Tuck School of Business;
- James Moseley, chair and professor of biochemistry and cell biology, Geisel School of Medicine;
- Olivia Palmer, PhD candidate in engineering;
- Hélène Seroussi, associate professor of engineering and program lead in mechanical, operations, and systems engineering at Thayer;
- Tricia Spellman, chief financial and administrative officer at Thayer; and
- Charlie Sullivan, professor of engineering and co-director of the Power Management Integration Center.
The search was conducted with the assistance of executive search firm Korn Ferry.
Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, founded in 1867, is one of the nation’s first professional schools of engineering. In 2008, the school launched the nation’s first PhD innovation program and currently ranks fourth among US universities in alumni venture-backed startups per capita.
Dartmouth made history in 2016 as the first comprehensive national research university to award more undergraduate engineering degrees to women, a milestone the institution has sustained for nearly a decade.