Personal Mention

Susanna Hur has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Gretchen Goldsmith Lankford Award, which is given to an outstanding graduating senior in the Dietrich College who plans to attend graduate school and pursue a career in education. “This is such a great honor, especially since my professors nominated me,” said Hur, a psychology major with a minor in music performance. “My professors have helped me develop through my undergraduate career so I can pursue my dreams of becoming a teacher.” Hur was inspired by her mother, a special education teacher on Long Island. Her mother recently completed a master’s degree and is now using Applied Behavior Analysis therapy to help children with autism spectrum disorder. While at CMU, Hur completed an internship at the Children’s School where she worked alongside the music teacher. She learned how to prepare curriculum and present material to young children. In the fall, Hur will attend Harvard University to obtain her master’s degree in human development and education. She plans to become a special education teacher to help children with learning disabilities. She hopes to work in Boston after college in the public school system with children in pre-K. Learn more about Hur and the Lankford Award.

Wendy Arons, professor of Dramatic Literature in the School of Drama, has been appointed the new director of the Center for the Arts in Society (CAS) for a four-year renewable term. Arons, who will succeed Jim Duesing, will take over the role at the end of this academic year.  Arons has lent her time and talents to the CAS in various ways since 2008, shortly after she came to CMU. She was the project leader from 2008-2011 for the Performance and Ecology Project; served as the co-facilitator (with Kristina Straub) of the Performance Initiative from 2014-2017; and has been a member of the advisory board since 2017. She will remain a member of the School of Drama faculty and continue to teach dramaturgy classes. Looking forward, one of her first tasks with the CAS will be to meet with arts and humanities faculty to determine the theme for the next CAS initiative, identifying its coordinators and working with them to put out a call for project proposals so that funding for the next cycle of projects can be put in place by mid-2023. Learn more about Arons and the CAS.

Irene Fonseca, the Kavčić-Moura University Professor of Mathematics and director of CMU’s Center for Nonlinear Analysis, has received the International Society for the Interaction of Mechanics and Mathematics Senior Prize “for her outstanding contributions to the calculus of variations and the mathematics of materials science, her exemplary service to the mathematical community and for being an inspirational mentor and role model for female mathematicians.” Fonseca’s research is the calculus of variations and nonlinear partial differential equations. She develops mathematical tools that can be used to understand and predict the properties of smart materials for engineering, such as memory alloys and magnetic materials, and to improve computer vision by detexturing, denoising and colorizing images. Fonseca is a fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, the American Mathematical Society and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. She has received a knighthood from the former president of Portugal for her work. Learn more about Fonseca.