Dr. Christiansen, recently retired from the University of Michigan, after having been a member of the faculty since 1982. Dr. Christiansen attended Iowa State University in Ames and then enrolled in the College of Dentistry at the University of Iowa, receiving his D.D.S. degree in 1959. He attended Indiana University from 1962 to 1964, receiving an M.S.D. degree in orthodontics. In 1966 to 1970, he was enrolled in a doctoral program in physiology in the University of Minnesota Medical School. He completed his Ph.D. in 1970.

After working at the National Institutes of Health for many years, Dr. Christiansen became Dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Michigan in 1982, a position he held for five years. During that time he also served as the Director of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation Institute at the University of Michigan. Since 1987, Dr. Christiansen was a Professor of Dentistry in the Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry, teaching clinical orthodontics as well as biomechanics.