Presenter: Alison Alden, Vice President for Human Resources
The first Innovative Solutions award goes to Cesar Duarte, an administrative assistant in the Department of Mathematics. Although he is relatively new, his nominators say that in the past year, his ingenuity has had an enormous impact on the department. From the day he started, Cesar has initiated improvements. He proactively transformed the department’s visual identity, redoing or producing new publications that visually reflect its standing as best in the world.
But his most dramatic innovation has been the transformation of relocation plans for the department, which is moving to temporary space. Using his hidden talents in architectural design and software, Cesar suggested an alternative floorplan to the original proposal. His inventive plan achieves significant cost and space efficiencies and gives graduate students a far more productive space. In fact, another department being relocated is also interested in his plan.
Cesar, his colleagues say, has quickly and quietly exacted a revolution in the Department of Mathematics and deserves the Excellence Award for Innovative Solutions.
Let’s welcome him to the stage, everyone: Cesar Duarte.