![\"Clements](\"https:\/\/clemson.world\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Class-of-39-Award.jpg\")
<\/a>CLEMSON FACULTY have recognized associate professor of industrial engineering Mary Beth Kurz as one of the very best among them by awarding her the Class of \u201939 Award for Excellence.\nThe award, endowed by the class of 1939 to commemorate its 50th anniversary in 1989, is presented annually to a faculty member whose outstanding contributions for a five-year period have been judged by fellow faculty to represent the highest achievement of service to the student body, University, and community, state or nation. The recipient also becomes an honorary member of the class of 1939.
\nCalling Kurz a \u201ccomplete professor\u201d with a heart for service in nominating her for the award, William Ferrell, Fluor International Supply Chain Professor and associate dean of the Graduate School, wrote Kurz is \u201can excellent faculty member who has balanced success across teaching, research and securing funding.\u201d
\nKurz said she was humbled to learn she would receive the award: \u201cMany of my campus heroes are in the class of 1939, and I am honored that my colleagues have elected to have me join this class. I feel the weight of the deeds of the original members of the class of 1939 and hope to live up to their reputation.\u201d
\nKurz, who came to Clemson in 2001, said she believes that being a faculty member is a long-term commitment between her and the University. \u201cBeing a faculty member who stays at an institution and grows with the institution requires engagement on both sides,\u201d she said. \u201cSome people are very happy and successful having a career focused on their labs,\u00a0their students, their research. I like to engage with people in lots of ways, and so I have developed relationships with people through various activities, like college-level computing or curriculum committees, or University-level activities, like curriculum committees or Faculty Senate.\u201d
\n\u201cStudents \u2014 both undergraduates and graduates \u2014 indicate she is an excellent classroom teacher,\u201d Ferrell wrote. \u201cHer approach is always to lead by example where the students know that she is working alongside them, not telling them what to do.\u201d
\nKurz\u2019s research, for which she has garnered more than $4.8 million in funding, focuses on tactical decision-making in assembly systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Clemson faculty have recognized associate professor of industrial engineering Mary Beth Kurz as one of the very best among them by awarding her the Class of \u201939 Award for Excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[635,2802],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-22229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-these-hills","tag-class-of-39-award-for-excellence","tag-summer-2020-in-these-hills"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/06\/Class-of-39-Award.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22229"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}