Tom Hurst Receives Staff Service Award for Spring 2020

Assistant Director of Graduate Education, Tom Hurst has been selected to receive the Staff Service Award for Spring 2020 in recognition of his exceptional administration of the graduate program.

“We have one of the largest graduate programs on campus with over 300 students,”said Professor Ramani Duraiswami, Associate Chair for Graduate Program. “Tom is committed to the job, and does it without reservations, ensuring he knows every student in the program.” “He has innovated in how our visit day is arranged, in helping launch the research day, and in improving grad student social life,” he said.

 With the rapid growth in the graduate program, Tom has been instrumental in understanding and catering the dynamic administrative needs of the program.

“Tom has consistently looked for ways to improve day-to-day activities of our graduate students, who are the engine of the CS department research enterprise,” said Associate Professor Hector Corrada Bravo.“He has made routine processes for students and graduate students much easier, made laudable efforts to improve the experience of incoming and visiting students during Graduate Student Orientation and Visit Day,” explained Corrada Bravo.

Tom was unanimously voted and selected by the CS Staff Awards Committee, headed by Professor James Reggia, and nominated by multiple faculty members independently.

 "Tom's dedication to the department and to the success of its graduate students is an inspiration to all of us,” said Darnell-Kanal Professor Daniel Abadi. Tom's responsibilities at UMD are identical to those in the same full time role at much smaller institutions, yet he not only manages to stay on top of everything despite the enormous size of UMD's computer science department and its graduate student population, but even finds time to go above and beyond his call of duty,” he said.