[3] Kurtz attended public schools in her hometown of Defiance, Ohio, and graduated in 1979 from Manchester College, majoring in chemistry and physics.
She earned a Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1985 from Harvard University;[3] her dissertation was Atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon, titanium nitride, and titanium dioxide thin films.
[2] Kurtz and fellow NREL scientist Jerry Olson won one of the 2007 Dan David Prizes "for their exceptional and profound contributions to the field of photovoltaic energy".
[5] In 2012 the IEEE Electron Devices Society gave her their William R. Cherry Award for her work on multi-junction cells.
[6] The US Clean Energy Education & Empowerment (C3E) Initiative gave her their 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award.