January 27, 2020

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

As University President Sarah Mangelsdorf noted in her message last week, the year 2020 has special importance in marking the centennial of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, and also the 200th anniversary of Susan B. Anthony’s birth. “Given that Rochester was a home base for her tireless efforts on behalf of women’s suffrage,” President Mangelsdorf wrote, “it seems appropriate that the University is marking these significant milestones by recognizing the accomplishments of women over the last 100 years – and looking forward to the next 100 years.”

Many University departments and units are planning to mark this year through lectures, concerts, and other events that recognize and honor the impact of Rochester women. In the Hajim School, we will highlight women — past and present — who have made notable contributions in engineering and computer science as students, staff, faculty, and alumnae of our University.

In this week’s edition of Hajim Highlights, for example, we recognize some notable “firsts” achieved by our women students and faculty.

For example, did you know that the honor of being the first female to graduate with an engineering degree at our University is actually shared by two women?

“Machine Shop Femininity” read a headline in the Rochester (NY) Times-Union on Sept. 10, 1935.

Two young women at the University of Rochester, the newspaper reported, were “majoring in distinctly masculine pursuits.”

According to the article, “many college girls are just beginning to shop for fall wardrobes.” However, Norma Doell “has already started the academic year in faded shop clothes. Only girl ever to take the optics course, she was hard at work yesterday at the River Campus machine shop….”

“Her girlhood chum, Miss Marie E. Bessey, is majoring in mechanical engineering and is scheduled to take the same shop practice course later in the year.”

Marie (Bessey) Boardway of mechanical engineering, and Norma (Doell) Miller of optics, shown above, both received their BS degrees in 1939.

To the best of our knowledge, based on alumnae and commencement records, here are our other first women graduates by department and program:

  • Simone (Blumenthal) Greene, BS chemical engineering 1955
  • Joan Rose Ewing, MS electrical engineering 1967
  • Cathie (Lubell) Burke, MS materials science 1975
  • Harriet (Schippers) Marisa, BS interdepartmental engineering 1975
  • Shirley Turner, BS geomechanics 1975
  • Michele Denber, MS computer science 1980
  • Jill Carrie (Greenberg) Hildreth, BA engineering science 1995
  • Christine Michelle (Myers) Vietz, MS biomedical engineering 1999

First women PhD graduates by department and program:

  • Joan Rose Ewing, electrical engineering 1973
  • Diana Nyyssonen, optics 1975
  • Julie Harmon, materials science 1983
  • Diane Judith Litman, computer science 1986
  • Glori Chu-Shu Lee, chemical engineering 1986
  • Catherine Irene (Funk) Weisman, mechanical engineering 1990
  • Christine Michelle (Myers) Vietz, biomedical engineering 2001

First woman tenure-track faculty member:

  • Carla Schlatter Ellis, computer science (1980-1986)

First woman tenured faculty member:

  •  Sheryl Gracewski, mechanical engineering (1984-2018, now emeritus)

First woman instructional track faculty member:

  • Julie Bentley, optics (1998- present)

First women department chairs/program directors:

  • Sandhya Dwarkadas, chair of computer science (2014-present)
  • Diane Dalecki, director Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound (2007-present) and chair of biomedical engineering (2016-present)
  • Danielle Benoit, director of Materials Science Program (2019-present)

As first women dean of the Hajim School, I am honored to be in their company.

Special thanks to Melissa Mead, the John M. & Barbara Keil University Archivist and Rochester Collections Librarian, and Nancy Porter at the Tully NY Historical Society, who provided invaluable assistance in helping us identify and gather information on our first women graduates.

Continue to watch for profiles of many of our notable women in engineering and computer science in future editions of Hajim Highlights. We will also create a website as a repository for these inspiring stories. And we will plan a special event for Meliora Weekend to further commemorate the contributions of these women, and to discuss the continuing under-representation of women in engineering and computer science.

As President Mangelsdorf notes, this year “presents an opportunity for both celebration and reflection. The efforts and successes of so many of this University’s women faculty, students, staff, and alumnae is in many ways a natural progression of Susan B. Anthony’s vision and passion. But we must never lose sight of how much work we still need to do.”

I hope by the end of this year we will all have a much fuller appreciation of what women can — and have — contributed to our school, to our University, and to science and engineering. That appreciation will hopefully sharpen our awareness of what we forfeit as long as women and minorities remain underrepresented in STEM fields — and will increase our determination to do something about it.

Have a great week,

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman

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