Zoë Marschner, a Ph.D. student in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, was one of 18 students selected for the 2024 Hertz Fellowships.

This fellowship, awarded by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation, is one of the most prestigious in the country. It provides five years of funding for students in applied science, engineering and mathematics.

Marschner, who is advised by Keenan Crane in the Computer Science Department, works on geometry processing, a subfield of computer graphics focused on how to digitally represent and work with geometric data.

"One thing I love about geometry processing is that the problems we solve are really fundamental, making them applicable across many fields beyond computer science, such as biomedical imaging or mechanical engineering," Marschner said. "Because of this, I'm excited that as a Hertz fellow I'll get to meet people doing cutting-edge work across so many different fields. It's an amazing opportunity to learn about how my work could be used in those areas."

Marschner hopes to develop methods for the basic computations at the core of solving geometric problems on new and emerging representations of 3D shapes. Specifically, she aims to enable these representations to improve algorithms for solving geometric problems across science and engineering.

"For more than 60 years, Hertz Fellows have led scientific and technical innovation in national security, applied biological sciences, materials research, artificial intelligence, space exploration and more. Their contributions have been essential in advancing U.S. competitiveness," said Stephen Fantone, chair of the Hertz Foundation board of directors and founder and president of Optikos Corporation. "I'm excited to watch our newest Hertz Fellows as they pursue challenging research and continue the strong tradition of applying their work for the greater good."

Learn more about this award at the Hertz Foundation website.