Kimberly L. Foster (née Passerello, formerly Kimberly L. Turner) is an American mechanical engineer specializing in microelectromechanical systems including stick-slip phenomena, biomimetic adhesives, parametric oscillators, and microsensors. She is dean of science and engineering at Tulane University, where she is also a professor of physics and engineering physics and (by courtesy) of biomedical engineering.^[1]

Foster is originally from Michigan, and studied engineering at Michigan Technological University,^[1] where her father Chris Passerello was a faculty member.^[2] She graduated in 1994,^[1] taking only three years for her degree.^[2] Originally planning to become a veterinarian, she continued in engineering after obtaining a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship.^[3] She completed her Ph.D. in 1999 at Cornell University, in theoretical and applied mechanics.^[1]

She joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1999,^[3] and served as chair of the department of mechanical engineering there from 2008 to 2013. She moved to Tulane as dean in 2018.^[1][4]

Foster was named an ASME Fellow in 2014, "for her major contributions in the area of micro-electro-mechanical-systems" and "extensive service to her professional community".^[5]

In 2021, Michigan Technological University named Foster to their Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics Academy.^[2]

• Kimberly L. Foster publications indexed by Google Scholar