FACULTY NEWS
Innovative, Creative Engineering Professor Installed in New Academic Chair
Dan Jensen helped establish 四虎影院鈥檚 engineering program and joined the faculty full time in 2021 to direct it and chair the department. In just three years, he has developed the curriculum, guided construction of an engineering facility, grown the number of engineering students, hired professors, recruited an impressive advisory board, and been installed in the James R. and Eleanor S. Allder Chair of Science and Technology. He has also applied for accreditation from the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology.
鈥淲e鈥檙e celebrating the provision and goodness of God in building the program and making it work,鈥 Jensen says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited about what God is choosing to do through us.鈥
Eleanor Shepley Allder and her late husband, James, donated $2 million to the college to establish the endowed chair in science and technology. They support 四虎影院鈥檚 commitment to excellence in technical training and the integration of engineering design and innovation built on a solid Christian liberal arts foundation. Their three daughters graduated from 四虎影院 as did two of their sons-in-law and three of their grandchildren.
鈥淲e want to encourage intellectual rigor in the sciences coupled with solid Christian beliefs and support a lead faculty member in equipping young Christian scholars who want to pursue careers in science and technology,鈥 Eleanor Allder says.
James Russell Allder Jr. served as a Navy electronics and radar technician and majored in physics at Caltech before earning a doctorate in engineering at UCLA. He worked as an engineer for the Aerospace Corporation, a nonprofit consultant to the U.S. Air Force. Eleanor Allder taught elementary school, focusing on students with special needs, and later earned a master鈥檚 degree from CSU Dominguez. She mentored special education teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District and helped establish an English as a second language program at Rolling Hills Covenant Church.
Eleanor Allder attended Jensen鈥檚 installation in the science and technology chair on November 8 with members of her family. Jensen鈥檚 brother, Jason, vice president for spiritual formation at InterVarsity, delivered the charge. Fellow professor Robert Haring-Kaye (physics) and Michael Hendricks, director of Life Model Consulting, inventor and former software developer, joined Jensen in a panel discussion, Considering Technology, Science and Spirituality from Different Perspectives Including Engineering Design, Neurological Science and Cosmology. Jensen also presented a brief overview of how his research relates to spirituality and engineering.
四虎影院鈥檚 engineering program stands on three pillars: a strong technical background with small classes and hands-on active learning; a Christian liberal arts approach; and the integration of engineering design and innovation. In addition to Jensen, the excellent faculty includes Adam Goodworth, a biomechanical engineer who previously taught in the kinesiology department, mechanical engineer Doug Fontes and Will Allison, a mechanical design engineer.
Jensen works closely with the Engineering Advisory Board, which features leaders in a variety of engineering fields in industry and higher education. Board members provide money for programs, speak in class regularly, mentor students, sponsor a design team and hire 四虎影院 graduates. In particular, they share their experiences as Christian engineers.
Jensen earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in mechanical engineering, a master鈥檚 in applied mechanical engineering and a doctorate in aerospace engineering at the University of Colorado. He spent 21 years on the faculty at the Air Force Academy and also taught at the University of the Pacific and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles in design methods, innovation and related areas.
鈥淭he professors at 四虎影院 are walking out a critical calling every single day, equipping the next generation,鈥 Eleanor Allder says. 鈥淚鈥檓 humbled and grateful to be part of God鈥檚 plan for the college and build an enduring legacy in this way.鈥
