A year after Lovisa Arnesson-Cronhamre was killed by a speeding driver, the Penn State graduate student’s loved ones are honoring her memory with a scholarship at the university and a charity hike.
The Be More Lovisa Graduate Student Scholarship — established by Arnesson-Cronhamre’s parents, Maja Cronhamre and Peter Arnesson Gyld, and fiancé, Matthew Hollingham — will support an Eberly College of Science graduate student in physics, with preference given to those studying particle astrophysics.
Arnesson-Cronhamre’s family announced the scholarship at a celebration of her life on Thursday in State College. Physics doctoral students Šárka Blahnik and Emma Steinebronn were named the inaugural recipients of the scholarship.
“Losing Lovisa has been devastating but we, as a family, strongly wish to contribute to someone else’s love of physics and to honor Lovisa in a way that will keep her memory alive,” Cronhamre said in a statement. “We have chosen to do this at Penn State, where her future dreams were being made possible. For us as a family, it’s vital to reflect Lovisa and her amazing qualities in a way that can contribute to her memory and so that other graduate students may follow their own dream.”
Hollingham, a Penn State graduate student in architectural engineering, has also organized “Climbing Mount Everest via Mount Nittany,” a charity hike that will be held on Saturday in Arnesson-Cronhamre’s honor. He will climb Mount Nittany nearly 50 times to reach the equivalent of the height of Mount Everest. The climb will raise money for the international charity Save the Children.
“Lovisa always wanted to have children but she was killed before she had the chance,” Hollingham said in a statement. “This is me giving back to the children she never had.”
Arnesson-Cronhamre, a 25-year-old doctoral candidate from Sweden, was jogging on the 200 block of East Park Avenue at about 8 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2023, when she was struck by a BMW M3 driven by former Penn State student Ahmed Alqubaisi, who lost control of the car and drove onto the sidewalk.
State College police said Alqubaisi only had a learner’s permit and was driving at an unsafe speed.
Arnesson-Cronhamre died the following morning after being flown to UPMC Altoona.
Alqubaisi, of United Arab Emirates pleaded guilty in March to a felony count of accidents involving death or personal injury and was sentenced to 33 days to 23.5 months in prison, with credit for time served. The plea deal, which the Centre County District Attorney’s Office said was reached with the support Arnesson-Cronhamre’s family, meant Alqubaisi was eligible for immediate release, and WJAC reported that he left the United States on a “voluntary departure” within a week.
According to the university, Arnesson-Cronhamre started at Penn State with the Responsive and Adaptive Infrastructure Materials Research Group in architectural engineering and planned to transfer to the Department of Physics to work on the IceCube Neutrino Observatory for her doctoral research in experimental neutrino physics.
Her parents described her as conscientious, determined, forward-thinking and supportive, but also modest and humble. The scholarship named in her honor will be awarded to a student with those qualities, and nominations will also be accepted from those who work alongside someone worthy of consideration but who have not put themselves forward for consideration.
“I believe it’s important to establish a scholarship in Lovisa’s name so that her memory can live on for as long as possible,” Arnesson Gyld said in a statement. “Lovisa was incredibly helpful and always stepped up when someone needed assistance. A scholarship that can be awarded in her name is yet another way for her to continue helping others, just as she did when she was with us. Her kind heart can continue to make a difference.”
After graduating from high school in Sweden, Arnesson-Cronhamre moved to Scotland and studied astrophysics at the Glasgow University, where she met Hollingham. They then moved to Penn State to pursue their doctoral studies.
“Lovisa truly lived her life well and we will always be incredibly proud of her, not only for her impressive accomplishments but for being an amazingly kind and thoughtful person,” Cronhamre said. “The world needs more Lovisas.”
