Gary Null, PhD

Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Assistant Professor of Practice

Biography

Dr. Gary Null is the Assistant Department Head for Undergraduate Affairs and Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK).  He received his Ph.D. in Systems and Engineering Management from Texas Tech University, within the Department of Industrial, Manufacturing and Systems Engineering.  His research focused on the investigation of lean six sigma tool selection in a program management organization.

He has spent over 30 years working in leadership roles within the government and private industry.  He is a retired US Navy officer, where he served in shipyard project management and shipboard test engineering positions as an Engineering Duty Officer.  He also retired as a civilian federal employee for the US Army, where he served as a Program Manager for the modernization of Army Watercraft Systems completed within US and overseas shipyards, and as a Systems Engineer.  He has also held positions in the areas of Plant and Production Management, and Business Capture Management in private industry.  He is a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, serving in this position in the government and private industry. 

Prior to joining UTK, he taught various MBA, quantitative studies, operations management and engineering courses, as well as Lean Six Sigma black belt, green belt and transactional project leader courses of instruction.  He is also a Design Thinking course facilitator and coach.  He is a member of IISE and ASEM, and a registered professional engineer in the state of California.

Education

• PhD, Systems and Engineering Management, Texas Tech University, 2017
• MBA, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, 2000
• MS, Mechanical Engineering, Naval Postgraduate School, 1997
• BS, Systems Engineering, United States Naval Academy, 1991