CS Professor Eva Tardos has been elected to a Jacob Gould Schurman endowed chair, awarded by the Board of Trustees at their May meeting. This is one of the most prestigious chairs offered at Cornell, open to all colleges and funded by the University.
The chair is named after Cornell's third president, who prior to serving as president was the dean of Cornell's Sage School of Philosophy. After serving as Cornell's president, he went on to become US Ambassador to China and then Germany.
Eva's appointment will honor the chair as well as the converse because she is such a distinguished scientist. Her long list of awards, including her recent election to the National Academy of Engineering, is evidence to the whole world. For those of us who know her, the evidence is more direct -- her keen mind, her tenacity in understanding concepts and issues better than anyone, her capacity for focused work that produces remarkable articles, books, and courses, her wise guidance of students, and lately her strong leadership of one of the most distinguished computer science departments in the world.
We are all grateful to Eva that she has been willing to put so much energy into guiding the department and our community of teachers, students, and staff.
Congratulations to Eva, and to all of us for having her among us.