New Staff, Promotion Enhance Library’s Research and Scholarship Team
To enhance the development and maintenance of our collections as well as promote research and scholarship programs, the Linda Hall Library recently welcomed two new staff members and promoted a third. In January, Tania Munz and Ben Gross joined the Library as the new Vice President of Research and Scholarship and Associate Vice President for Collections, respectively. Additionally, Michelle Lahey was promoted to the job of Public Services Manager. Munz will oversee the Research and Scholarship Department and Fellows program. Together with Gross, she will lead collection strategy and enhance the Fellows program by garnering additional program resources and developing and expanding ongoing relationships with scholars and other history of science institutions. Munz comes to the Linda Hall Library from Northwestern University where she taught in the Science in Human Culture program. She also served on the History of Science Society Council during which time she co-founded the “HSS at Work” caucus to facilitate career exploration and networking across disciplines and outside academia. In May, her book The Dancing Bees: Karl Von Frisch and the Discovery of the Honeybee Language will be published by University of Chicago Press. Gross is responsible for developing the Library’s collections to support its growing research mission. Some of the areas within that responsibility include assessing the Library’s contemporary and historical collections to ascertain their continued viability and to investigate new collecting opportunities based on contemporary research and scholarship. Gross comes to the Linda Hall Library following a postdoctoral fellowship at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, where he studied materials innovation in the American electronics industry. He has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania on technology, innovation, and business history. Gross has a special interest in the development of technology in television and other consumer electronic products, which he pursued as curator of The Sarnoff Collection at the College of New Jersey. Gross is writing a book on the development of the first liquid crystal displays (LCDs), which will be published by the University of Chicago Press. Lahey joined the Linda Hall Library as collection development librarian in 2003. In her new role, Lahey will be responsible for the Library’s Main Reading Room operations, including working with members of the Page staff and Technical Services staff, in addition to coordinating workflows with Digital Services, Document Services and Special Collections teams.