Penn State renaming building after female engineer, alum who worked on Apollo missions
Penn State is posthumously honoring the first woman to earn a master’s degree in engineering there by renaming a building after her at CATO Park in State College.
Alum Lidia Manson earned her master’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1943, before going on to earn a Ph.D. in physics and contributing to the Apollo missions by working on rocket engine and fin designs. Manson led a remarkable life, escaping from Russia in 1925 at the age of 10 before fleeing Europe with the advent of the Nazis, chaperoning Jewish war orphans on a boat to the U.S.
Manson died in 2005 near Los Angeles at the age of 90.
The “Lidia Manson Building” that now shares her namesake is located at 2137 Research Drive, about 2.5 miles west of the main campus — from the College Avenue and Atherton Street intersection — and just south of Penn State’s golf courses. The nearly 60,000-square-feet building houses several engineering facilities, such as the Steady Thermal Aero Research Turbine (START) and the Civil Infrastructure Testing and Evaluation Laboratory (CITEL), where the university says “researchers 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,” Anthony Atchley, acting dean of Penn State’s College of Engineering, said in a written statement. “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.”
Penn State’s full board of trustees unanimously approved the building name change on Friday afternoon, a day after a committee unanimously voted to advance the measure.
Manson was described in her obituary as “vibrant,” “accomplished” and “lively.” She spoke four languages, spent vacations skiing or backpacking into her 70s, and raised four children with husband John Kuhn. After her career as a heat-transfer specialist, she taught reading and gardening to inner-city children and volunteered at the L.A. Museum of Space and Technology.
