Profile
Dean of the Faculty of Sustainable Design Engineering (FSDE); Professor
BScEng (New Brunswick); MSc (Leeds); PhD (McMaster)
Dr. Kresta is a professor of chemical engineering and recently completed a term as the Dean of Engineering (2018鈥�2023) at the University of Saskatchewan. Previously, she was the Associate Dean, Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, at the University of Alberta.
As the Dean of Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan, she led eight undergraduate programs through a transformational redesign of the first-year program, called RE-Engineered. This redesign was recently recognized with the D2L Innovation Award from the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education.
Among her other leadership contributions, Dr. Kresta implemented a required Indigenous cultural contextualization course for all first-year engineering students, laid the foundations for a major building project, and led and carried out a five-year strategic plan. The College doubled its cohort of female faculty members and increased the first-year cohort of female students by eight per cent. Its Times Higher Education rankings jumped from the 301鈥�400 group to the 201鈥�250 group.
Dr. Kresta earned a BScEng (University of New Brunswick), MSc (Leeds University), and PhD (McMaster University), all in chemical engineering. She has made significant contributions in research, particularly related to turbulent mixing in multi-phase and reacting flows in the process industries and co-edited The Handbook of Industrial Mixing, which is now a cornerstone in the field.
Dr. Kresta has received several teaching and research awards, including the Senior Molton Medal from the IChemE (UK). She was named on the World鈥檚 Top 2% of Scientists and Engineers list by a Stanford University study. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and Engineers Canada.
