DR. TUTUNCU MEMORIAL
Last fall we lost a cherished member of our Mines PE family. Dr. Azra Tutuncu passed away in her home in September 2019. She is survived by her sister, Dr. Ayse Nur Tutuncu.
Dr. Tutuncu was the director of UNGI, advisor for the ARMA student chapter, and advisor to a large number of graduate students in addition to teaching a couple courses each semester and taking an active role in pro - fessional organizations and partnerships such as TOP - CORP.
We held a memorial for Dr. Tutuncu on Oct 4th. Stu- dents, faculty and staff from Mines attended along with Dr. Tutuncu’s friends, colleagues and former students who traveled from as near as Denver and far as Texas and Kazakhstan. We mingled while watching a slide-
show with photos of Dr. Tutuncu from childhood to her life at Mines before hearing speakers.
Dr. Ramona Graves led off the speakers, followed by Dr. Erdal Ozkan (they had been friends since grad school) and Hilary Olsen (TOPCORP colleague from University of Texas, Austin). We opened the floor for others and alumni Bekdar Baizhanov MS ‘16 spoke on behalf of Azra’s students and shared a moving poem he had writ - ten for her. Drs. Bill Eustes and Priscilla Nelson (Mining Engineering) also shared some thoughts. There were tears and there was laughter as we honored and re- membered all she still means to us.
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Azra was a deducated advisor (with Binh Bui PhD ‘19 right, with Jessica Iriarte MS ‘17 and Dina Hegazy MS ‘17 center) and commited to continuing education through programs
like TOPCORP (left).
12 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES