Erik Luijten

Provost of Northwestern University

Erik Luijten assumed the role of Provost on July 1, 2026, after more than a decade of serving in academic leadership roles at Northwestern. The Liu-Wang Liming Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, he joined Northwestern in 2009 and holds courtesy appointments in Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy, and Chemistry. 

Luijten is recognized for his commitment to bridging the physical sciences with the arts and humanities and has dedicated a significant portion of his career to strengthening scholarship across Northwestern's schools and disciplines, including working with the Center for Scientific Studies in the Arts and Northwestern's Prison Education Program. 

Prior to assuming his role as provost, Luijten was the Associate Dean for Research and Doctoral Education in the McCormick School of Engineering, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at McCormick, and chair of Materials Science and Engineering. Before joining Northwestern, he was an associate professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and in the Department of Physics, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

An accomplished scientist whose research focuses on statistical mechanics of materials as well as advanced computational methods, Luijten is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a fellow of the American Physical Society and a recipient of several awards, including the IAPWS Helmholtz Award, the Xerox Award for faculty research, and a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. He earned his B.S./M.S. degrees in physics from Utrecht University in The Netherlands and a Ph.D. in applied physics from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.