March 12, 2026 New Assistant Teaching Faculty: Kiffer Creveling Written By: Caitlin Scott Departments: Mechanical Engineering Categories: Faculty|Research|Teaching Christopher ‘Kiffer’ Creveling joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Assistant Teaching Faculty in January 2026! Creveling completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Utah where he researched the strength of adhesion between the different layers of the human eye. Specifically, how strong the retina is adhered to the vitreous. His research entailed developing an experimental test method to quantify adhesion at the vitreoretinal interface of human donor eyes, analyzing the underlying microstructure of the interface using transmission electron microscopy, and reverse engineering the material properties of adhesion using finite element analysis. Since graduating, Creveling has worked at Stryker Neurovascular in their R&D Operations group in a subset of manufacturing working on fixture design and development for next-generation stroke treatment devices. Creveling is also a professional sports photographer and has covered events ranging from NBA, NCAA, to FIS ski racing World Cup races. In the spring 2026 semester, Creveling is teaching ME 231-CAD and will be teaching EMA 405-Finite Elements in the fall, which is being scaled up to serve both ME and EMA students.