Dr. van Delden joined the Winthrop family in January 2024 as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs and a Professor of Computer Science. Prior to this appointment, he served as the Dean of Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering at the College of Charleston. He also held Chairship positions at Southeastern Louisiana University and the University of South Carolina Upstate. Originally from a small Dutch island in the Caribbean called Saba, he came to America as an international student and, in 2003, earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida, where he met his wife, Elizabeth, a licensed clinical social worker and therapist. Sebastian and Elizabeth have two daughters, Ava and Bels.

Dr. van Delden has published 30 scholarly articles in the areas of artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and industrial robotics, many of which include undergraduate student co-authors. He has taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses, including algorithms, data structures, robotics, computer vision, machine learning, artificial intelligence, parallel and distributed computing, web programming, software engineering, computer organization and digital logic, discrete structures, and natural language processing.

Dr. van Delden has been a Rotarian for almost 20 years and enjoys a great sense of fulfillment in giving back to the community in this capacity. He has held several leadership positions in Rotary, including being the President of the Rotary Club of Charleston Breakfast where he led meal packing events, community center restoration projects, clothing drives for those in need, and environmental clean-up and protection initiatives.