Cynthia M. Furse (née Mahoney, [1] born 1963) is an American electrical engineer, the director of graduate studies and a distinguished professor in the University of Utah Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. [2] Her research involves the use of finite-difference time-domain methods in computational simulations of the absorption and reflection of radio waves by other materials, [3] with applications including the use of spread-spectrum time-domain reflectometry to diagnose aircraft wiring systems, the design of antennae in medical implants, and the effects of cell phone emissions on the human body. [4] Her publications also include works on engineering education.
Furse was born in 1963 [5] in Hartford, Maine. [6] After her father, food scientist Arthur W. Mahoney, [7] took a professorship at Utah State University in 1969, [8] she grew up in Logan, Utah. [6] After beginning her studies in mechanical engineering, [3] she became a student of electrical engineering at the University of Utah, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1985, a master's degree in 1988, and a Ph.D. in 1994. [9] Her master's work was mentored by Magdy Iskander; Om P. Gandhi became her doctoral supervisor. [3]
Before returning to the University of Utah as a faculty member, she was a professor at Utah State University for five years, beginning in 1997. [8] After moving to the University of Utah in 2002, [1] she co-founded in 2003 and became chief scientist of Livewire Test Labs, a spinoff of the University of Utah that later became LiveWire Innovation. [4] [10] From 2009 to 2019, she served as Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Utah. [4] [6]
Furse is the author or coauthor of technical books including:
She is also a coauthor of a local history book:
Furse was named an IEEE Fellow in 2008, "for leadership in electromagnetics education". [12] She joined the National Academy of Inventors in 2014. [13] She was named a Fellow of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society in 2023, "for exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions in applied computational electromagnetics". [14]
She was named Professor of the Year in the Utah State University College of Engineering in 2000. [15] At the University of Utah, she was named the 2008 College of Engineering Distinguished Professor. [15] She was a 2016 recipient of the Utah Governor's Medal for Science and Technology. [8]
She was the 2009 recipient of the Hewlett-Packard Harriett B. Rigas Award of the IEEE Education Society, [15] and the 2020 recipient of the Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, given to her "for motivating, challenging, educating, and inspiring the next generation of EM engineers through innovative teaching, hands-on experiences, current research, and lively participation". [16]