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College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture Announces Lee Townsend Retirement

August 03, 2021
Submitted By: Stephanie Fengler

Lee Townsend, assistant professor of mathematics in the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, is retiring after 26 years on the University of Hartford faculty.

Townsend joined the University of Hartford in 1995 as an adjunct professor of mathematics and physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. She was promoted to assistant professor of mathematics in 1997 and became a full-time mathematics faculty in the Ward College of Technology. She remained in this role through its merger with the College of Engineering in 2003 to form the College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture (CETA). According to the founding dean of CETA Alan Hadad, this transformation to a comprehensive College of technology from what had been a school of electronics presented numerous challenges, particularly in the pedagogy of physics and mathematics, Townsend immediately played a leadership role in this transformation effort. In a relatively short period of time between 1999 and 2002, she rose to the position of associate dean of the College, and also served as the second director of the Connecticut Space Grant Consortium located on campus.

“When Ward College merged with the College of Engineering in 2003 to form the current College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, Lee once again played a major role in dealing with the logistics of this union,” Hadad says. “Through it all, she has worked tirelessly and highly effectively in using her prodigious computer skills to aid in the administration of the College, while consistently maintaining her excellence in the teaching of mathematics to our technology students. It has been a genuine pleasure working with Lee for the past twenty-four years. We all look forward to her continued association with CETA, and hope that she enjoys a well-deserved retirement.”

In addition to the roles mentioned above, Townsend served as the chair for the audio engineering program from 2001 to 2002 and has served as the chair of the academic standings committee between 2004 and 2007. Her industry service includes her role as a reviewer for the Optical Society of America since 1988 and her role as a reviewer for the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers in 2010.

As a theoretical physicist and applied mathematician by trade, Townsend has been known as a very intuitive thinker. Her professional work can be summarized as solving problems that help the laser community with analysis of lasers. She says that’s part of being a physicist—discovering where the problems come from and how they can be solved.

The most rewarding part about her career? The students. She says she loved teaching because of the individuals she got to teach over the years. “My students taught me so much, especially when it comes to teaching.” Most recently, she taught math to engineering technology students, whom she thought of more as hardware engineers. She describes her students as very concrete thinkers. Math is a character-based language that is recognizable by pattern matching the problem to the rule. In particular, she worked with her students to improve their pattern matching skills, difficult for concrete thinkers, and ultimately improve their math skills. She felt fortunate to have a positive impact on so many students.

Throughout her career at the University of Hartford, Townsend has continued her scholarship. Townsend was known for her consistent help and dedication for everyone in the College. In particular, she developed several Excel programs for the Deans, colleagues, and staff that are used extensively. She thoroughly enjoyed developing them as the work combined her passion for programming and graphic design for a good user interface and user experience. She also published a few pedagogical papers while working as a faculty member in CETA.

Her work was recognized in several venues. Most recently, Townsend received the Senior Member Designated Award from the Optical Society in 2012. Additionally, during her time working in industry, she earned the United Technologies Research Center Great Job Award, the United Technologies Optical Systems Achievement Award, and the United Technologies Optical Systems Outstanding Service Award, and completed the National Science Foundation Research Traineeship.

Townsend thoroughly enjoyed working in industry for many years, where she earned six patents. She worked for a large corporation for more than seventeen years, then started her own business, in which she designed a laser using Excel. Her industry experience spans across various organizations, including United Technologies Research Center; Image Solutions Group, LLC; Advanced Optical Equipment and Systems Corporation; and United Technologies Corporation. Prior to the University of Hartford, Townsend also taught as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Connecticut. She is a proud member of the Optical Society of America; Society of Photo-Instrumentation Engineers; American Society for Engineering Education; and Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics.

Townsend earned her PhD from the University of New Hampshire, her MA from the University of New Hampshire, and her AB from Smith College.

In retirement, Townsend plans to clean up some of her Excel codes, learn Python coding as it could be a replacement for the current Excel language of visual basic for applications (VBA), learn how to edit photographs, and return to her passion of music.