Fred Hickernell, Ph.D
Vice Provost for Research, Professor of Applied Mathematics, Illinois Institute of Technology
Fred Hickernell is Vice Provost for Research and professor of applied mathematics at the Illinois Institute of Technology (Illinois Tech). Fred works on elevating Illinois Tech’s research programs. This includes (1) helping implement a new research support services team for the university, (2) helping to build up the university’s interdisciplinary large-scale proposal writing team, (3) ensuring that Illinois Tech is investing appropriately in research infrastructure, (4) ensuring that the university is offering sufficient professional development to our faculty in proposal writing and managing research teams, and many other items related to revitalizing our research enterprise. He is also leading efforts to renew Illinois Tech’s current approach to online and digital learning.
Fred has been an Illinois Tech faculty member for 13 years. Prior to being Vice Provost for Research, he served as chair of the Department of Applied Mathematics and director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Scientific Computation. Among his many awards are his fellowship in the Institute of Mathematical Statistics; his membership in the International Statistical Institute; the College of Science and Letters Dean’s Excellence Award for Research; and the 2016 Joseph F. Traub Prize for Achievement in Information-Based Complexity, awarded at the 12th International Conference on Monte Carlo and Quasi-Monte Carlo Methods in Scientific Computing. He received his B.A. in mathematics and physics from Pomona College and his Ph.D. in mathematics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
