Maria Chrysochoou, Professor and Head of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Connecticut, urges us to cultivate the potential of neurodivergent individuals, whether to contribute to engineering breakthroughs or transform education. Maria obtained her BS in Physics at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, her MS in Environmental Engineering at Technische Universität Dresden in Germany and her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology. Hired as Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut in 2007, promoted to Associate Professor in 2013 and Full Professor in 2019, she was recently appointed as the first female Department Head in the School of Engineering. Dr. Chrysochoou serves as Principal Investigator of the project “Beyond Accommodation: Leveraging Neurodiversity for Engineering Innovation," a 5-year project sponsored by the National Science Foundation Revolutionizing Engineering Department programs.
