Meet the Provost

Kichoon Yang, Ph.D.

Provost Kichoon Yang, Ph.D., a mathematician, was named Northwest Missouri State University’s top academic officer in January, 2005. He oversees all academic programs at the University, including undergraduate, graduate, Outreach centers and online. Since coming to Northwest, Dr. Yang has been instrumental in the development of the Center for Excellence.
Dr. Yang came to Northwest from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, where he had served as a dean. He led a number of important initiatives at the Iowa university, including the beginning of Iowa’s only undergraduate program in bioinformatics, one of the country’s fastest-growing and top job-producing disciplines.
Before going to UNI in 2001, Dr. Yang was assistant vice president for undergraduate studies at the University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, where he also served as professor of mathematics and chairman of the department. From 1994 to 1997 he was program director for the Geometric Analysis Program, Division of Mathematical Sciences, at the National Science Foundation.
In 1996, as a Fellow of the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and Technology, Dr. Yang conducted a comparative study of how the Japanese government funds science and technology, and how cultural differences affect science and technology policy.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Yang served 12 years on the mathematics faculty at Arkansas State University.
He is the author of numerous books and refereed papers and more than 100 reviews. He has edited Korean-American Science and Technology News since 1996 and served as editor of the Journal of the Korean Mathematical Society from 1997 to 2000.
Dr. Yang earned a B.S. degree from the University of North Carolina and a Ph.D. degree from Washington University, both in mathematics.