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Fotis Sotiropoulos is the Executive Vice President and Provost of The Pennsylvania State University. Reporting directly to the President, Dr. Sotiropoulos serves as the University’s chief academic officer, overseeing all colleges, campuses, and academic support units. He works closely with university leadership, faculty, staff, and students to set academic priorities and advance Penn State’s mission of excellence in education, research, and community impact.
Dr. Sotiropoulos most recently served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University (2021-2025). He previously held several leadership and faculty positions, including: Interim Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (2020-2021), Dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and SUNY Distinguished Professor (2015–2021) at Stony Brook University; James L. Record Professor of Civil Engineering and Director of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2006–2015); and Faculty member in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with a joint appointment in the G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, at the Georgia Institute of Technology (1995–2005).
An internationally recognized scholar in fluid mechanics, Dr. Sotiropoulos’s research focuses on simulation-based engineering science for addressing complex, societally relevant problems in renewable energy, environmental hydrodynamics, human health, and biological systems. He has authored over 220 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, with a Google Scholar h-index of 77, and his work has been featured on the covers of several leading scientific journals.
His honors include the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Fluids Engineering Award (2023), the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Borland Lecture Hydrology Days Award (2019), the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Hunter Rouse Hydraulic Engineering Award (2017), and a CAREER Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation. Dr. Sotiropoulos is an elected Fellow of both the American Physical Society and ASME, and his research has twice been recognized in the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Gallery of Fluid Motion (2009, 2011).