University of Kansas Engineer and Educator Wins 2024 Corones Award
University of Kansas Associate Dean Suzanne Shontz will receive the 2024 James Corones Award in Leadership, Community Building and Communication, the Krell Institute announced today.
The award is named for the Iowa-based educational nonprofit’s founder, who died in 2017, and recognizes mid-career scientists and engineers for their research impact, mentoring, scientific-community activities and their commitment to communicating science and technology. The award will be presented later this year on the recipient’s campus in Lawrence, Kansas.
A committee of Krell Institute collaborators and staff recognized Shontz “for her mentoring and leadership on the campuses she’s served and in the broader research community.” The committee also cited “her hands-on efforts to help budding scientists develop a wide range of communications skills, from workshops on poster preparation to scientific writing. What’s more, Associate Dean Shontz has been active early in the STEM pipeline, having organized summer camps for middle and high school students.”
Krell President Shelly Olsan noted Shontz’s “exceptional academic career and her leadership in professional activities that clearly highlight her dedication to her field. Dr. Shontz’s efforts teaching the next generation of scientists to communicate their work to broader communities have a clear relationship to this award and its founder.”
Shontz serves as associate dean for research and graduate programs in KU’s School of Engineering and is a professor in KU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. She directs the computational bioengineering track in the school’s Bioengineering Program and the Mathematical Methods in Interdisciplinary Computing Center at KU’s Information Sciences Institute. She is also affiliated with the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
Before joining KU in August 2014, she was on the faculty at Mississippi State and Pennsylvania State universities and previously was a postdoctoral research scholar at the University of Minnesota’s Minnesota Supercomputing Institute. In 2011, she was named an NSF Presidential Early Career for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) Award recipient.
Shontz received her Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2005 after earning a B.A. in mathematics and B.S. in chemistry from the University of Northern Iowa in 1999 and her M.S. degrees in computer science and applied mathematics from Cornell University in 2002. For more, visit her KU website.
Corones, a renowned researcher and administrator, led Krell from its start in 1997 until shortly before his death, building an organization known best for the prestigious scientific workforce-training programs it manages: the DOE Computational Science Graduate Fellowship, supported by the DOE Office of Science, and the DOE National Nuclear Security Administration-sponsored Stewardship Science and Laboratory Residency graduate fellowships. Before founding Krell, Corones was at the DOE’s Ames National Laboratory, managed by Iowa State University, where he also was a professor. He held numerous lab posts from 1978 to 1997, including program director for applied mathematical sciences, program director for environmental technology development, deputy director and acting director.
The Krell Institute supports technology-based education and information programs with technical assistance, management expertise and communications products, and collaborates with agencies and institutions to foster the nation’s competitive advantage in science and engineering.