The Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning moved forward a proposal to rename the building at 2137 Research Drive at Cato Park in honor of the College of Engineering's first alumna to receive a master's degree, Lidia Manson. Credit: Penn State. Creative Commons
Committee advances plan to rename CATO Park building for engineering alumna
Lidia Manson was the first woman to earn a master’s degree in engineering from Penn State
February 16, 2023
Editor's note: Penn State's Board of Trustees approved plans to rename 2137 Research Drive in State College as the Lidia Manson Building, as outlined below, during its meeting on Feb. 17.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — On Feb. 16 the Board of Trustees Committee on Finance, Business and Capital Planning advanced a proposed name change to 2137 Research Drive in State College to the Lidia Manson Building, in honor of the first woman to receive a master’s degree in engineering from Penn State.
The proposal goes to the full board for consideration on Feb. 17.
Manson earned her master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1943 from Penn State and went on to earn a doctorate in physics. She worked as a heat-transfer specialist, contributing to the Apollo missions and working on rocket engine and fin designs, as well as several energy-related projects.
Born in Russia in 1915, Manson was forced to flee the country with her family in 1925. She spent four years in Germany before moving to Paris to complete her undergraduate degree. As the Nazis rose to power, Manson chaperoned Jewish war orphans on a boat to the United States. Her parents remained in Europe, where they were killed.
She pursued further education in the United States and met her husband, John Kuhn, whom she married in 1946. They moved to Los Angeles in 1950 and raised four children together: Marie, Irene, Charles and Peter.
The building under consideration to bear Manson’s name comprises 56,879 gross square feet and contains office, laboratory and warehouse spaces. It currently houses several engineering facilities, including the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START), which was named a Pratt and Whitney Center of Excellence in 2022. It also contains the Civil Infrastructure Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (CITEL), a facility that enables researchers to examine materials used in building and how such materials and built environments fare in different conditions. Here, researchers in the Additive Construction Laboratory are investigating how to test 3D print houses for use on Mars and to solve housing issues in extreme environments on Earth.
“The engineering work conducted at 2137 Research Drive is, simply put, extraordinary,” said Anthony Atchley, acting dean of Penn State’s College of Engineering. “It is only fitting for the building to boast the name of the truly exceptional Lidia Manson, who made significant contributions to the fields of mechanical and aerospace engineering.”
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