Frances Hurwitz

Frances Irene Mazze Hurwitz (born 1945) is an American materials research engineer at NASA Glenn Center, Cleveland, Ohio. Hurwitz is known for her work on heat-resistant materials, aerogels, Space Shuttle Columbia Accident Investigation and Shuttle Return to Flight. Hurwitz studied at Harpur College -SUNY Binghamton, Syracuse University, and Case Western Reserve University. She has been and continues to be instrumental in the development of aerogels used at NASA and in developing and testing new aerospace materials.

Education Born in New York City, Hurwitz attended Harpur College at SUNY Binghamton from 1963-1966 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry. She worked as a chemist at a pharmaceutical company for a short time before returning to school at Syracuse University, where she received a Master's degree in Library Science at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse in 1968. While at Syracuse University, she was employed as an indexer at Upstate Medical Center on one of the first medical information retrieval systems based upon the National Library of Medicine's indexing system; On completion of her M.S. in Library Science, she worked in a pharmaceutical company as a technical reference librarian.

Career Frances Hurwitz was initially hired by NASA as a chemist in 1979 at the Glenn Research Center. Her efforts contributed to receipt of a NASA Team Achievement Award in 2003 for testing of materials to resolve failure mechanisms as part of the CAIB investigation. She has helped create an Aluminosilicate aerogel, which caused the lower thermal conductivities of the aerogels to be able to withstand temperatures higher than 900. This allows this material to better insulate space shuttles and materials in space and in re-entry of the space objects, causing less damage to the shuttle itself and the people inside it. In the same research project, she experimented with aerogels by adding in Titanium to the Aluminosilicate gels, which allowed for bigger average pore sizes and higher pore volumes. These aerogels are also better to use because they are lighter than other materials which can resist the same amount of heat, causing the shuttle to be lighter than it would with the other materials and would make it easier to launch into space. Frances married Leon Hurwitz in 1968. They moved to Cleveland, Ohio in 1969 when Leon accepted a position as an instructor in the Department of Political Science at Cleveland State University.

Awards and honors Frances Hurwitz has won over 20 NASA awards and the Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award. She also was recognized with a NASA Team Achievement Award in 2003 due to her work on the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster (see Space Shuttle Columbia). In 2014, she received the Society of Women Engineers’ highest award and recognition, the Achievement Award, based upon her research for NASA, “exceptional leadership skills across disciplines”, and her work to make the work environment more equal for women. She has over 60 publications, has been cited over 550 times, and has contributed to 4 book chapters, over 100 scholarly articles, a patent), and has several patents pending

Selected publications Frances I. Hurwitz, Haiquan Guo, Richard B. Rogers, Erik J. Sheets, Derek R. Miller, Katy N. Newlin, Molly K. Shave, Anna R. Palczer, Michael T. Cox, “Influence of Ti addition on Boehmite-Derived Aluminum Silicate Aerogel: Structure and Properties”, J Sol-Gel Sci Technol. 64(2): 367-374 DOI 10.1007/s10971-012-2866-8 (2012). F. I. Hurwitz, M. K Shave, Richard B. Rogers, A. R. Palczer, H. Guo, “Influence of Boehmite Precursor on Structure and Properties of Aluminosilicate Aerogels”, Int. J. Appl. Glass Sci., 5(3) 276-286 (2014). DOI:10.1111/ijag.12070. Hurwitz, Frances (2011). “Thermal Protection Systems”. Encyclopedia of Aerospace Engineering. Volume 4: Materials Technology. , DOI: 10.1002/9780470686652 eae211. Sola, Francisco, Frances Hurwitz, Jijing Yang. 2011. "A New Scanning Electron Microscope Approach to Image Aerogels at the Nanoscale." IOPScience. Volume 22. Hurwitz, Frances I., Meghan Gallagher, Tracy C. Olin, Molly K. Shave, Marlyssa A. Ittes, Katy N... Olafson, Meredith G. Fields, Haiquan Guo, Richard B. Rogers. "Optimization of Alumina and Aluminosilicate Aerogel Structure for High-Temperature Performance". International Journal of Applied Glass Science 5 (3): 276-286. doi:10.1111/ijag.12070.