Janis Terpenny is the new president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Dr. Terpenny, an engineering professor at George Mason University in Virginia, is currently serving as a programme director at the U.S. National Science Foundation, where her work focuses on smart and intelligent manufacturing systems. At George Mason, she holds appointments in the department of systems engineering and operations research and the department of mechanical engineering. Previously, she was dean of engineering at the University of Tennessee, department head of industrial and manufacturing engineering at Pennsylvania State University, and department chair of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering at Iowa State University.
Dr. Terpenny is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where she majored in applied mathematics. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech.
Corine Tachtiris, associate professor of comparative literature at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is president of the American Literary Translators Association.
As a scholar, Dr. Tachtiris has conducted extensive research on the intersection between translation and critical race studies, resulting in her monograph, Translation and Race (Routledge, 2024). In addition to her work at UMass Amherst, Dr. Tachtiris is a literary translator focusing on the work of contemporary women writers from Haiti, Africa, and the Czech Republic. She has previously taught at several other colleges and universities across the United States and spent six years teaching and researching in France and the Czech Republic.
A graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, Dr. Tachtiris holds a master of fine arts degree in translation and comparative literature from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Michigan.
Mengmeng Gu, director of campus extension at Colorado State University, is president-elect of the American Society for Horticultural Science.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Gu was a professor and head of Colorado State University’s department of horticulture and landscape architecture from 2022 to 2025. Earlier, she was a professor of horticulture sciences at Texas A&M University and an extension specialist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service. She is a fellow of the Food Systems Leadership Institute and has conducted extensive research in ornamental horticulture.
Dr. Gu received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in landscape architecture from Beijing Forestry University in China. She holds a Ph.D. in plant science and horticulture from the University of Arkansas.