Mardith Baenziger

Mardith Baenziger was the eigth and final Iowa Alpha recipient of the Tau Beta Pi Woman's Badge, graduating from Iowa State with a B.S. in Architectural Engineering in 1968. She also received a Master of Science degree in Nuclear Engineering from Iowa State in 1969.

From 1970 to 1975 she worked as an engineer and project engineer for a consulting engineering firm in Akron, Ohio, mainly involved in commercial, institutional and light industrial structures. In 1976 she moved to Wisconsin to attend graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, she was also a teaching assistant and instructor. When she started work on her doctorate degree, her sons were 1 and 3 years of age and she commuted three hours to school each day, while continuing to do all of the normal work of a housewife, cooking, cleaning, laundary and child care.

After receiving her PhD, she returned to Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in 1981. As a single parent with two sons she had the challenge of balancing her professional career with her private life. A measure of her success in this regard was the 1985 ISU Faculty Award she received for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service in Civil Engineering. In 1986 she was one of only three tenured women faculty members in the ISU College of Engineering, alongside 201 tenured men, with another ten women and 67 men working toward tenure in the college. At the time, civil engineering students were predominately men, over 90 percent, and therefore, the classes she taught were often comprised almost exclusively of men.

While a faculty member, her main areas of professional interest included structural dynamics and analysis, computer methods of analysis and design, computer graphics and engineering education. She retired in 2007 as an Associate Professor, Structural Engineering and continues to live in Ames.

Paver Inscription:

"Iowa Alpha Chapter of Tau Beta Pi
Women's Badge Recipients:
Eloise Zimmerman '46 Arch E
Mary Hurd '47 Civil E
Jane Templeman '53 Arch
Judy May '58 Chem E
Karen Gray '60 Chem E
Idelle Peterson '60 Chem E
Beverly Audeh '61 Aero E
Mardith Baenziger '68 Arch E"