Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838).  Self taught mathematician. Taught himself calculus, Latin and French, and translated the works of Pierre-Simon de Laplace. Credited as the founder of modern maritime navigation.  His book The New American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, is still carried on board every commissioned U.S. Naval vessel. Was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Harvard in 1802. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1799, and the American Philosophical Society in 1809. In 1804, he became America’s first insurance actuary as president of the Essex Fire and Marine Insurance Company. He was offered the chair of mathematics and physics at Harvard in 1806, and the chairs of mathematics at the United States Military Academy and the University of Virginia, all of which he turned down. In 1819 he was elected as a member of the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and London and the Royal Irish Academy.

academic advisor to…

Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880). Graduated Harvard, 1829. Appointed Professor of Mathematics at Harvard, 1831, and held the post for nearly 50 years, until his death in 1880. Made contributions to number theory and associative algebra (coining the terns nilpotent and idempotent.) Known for the Peirce Decomposition. Known also for Peirce’s Criterion for the treatment of outliers in statistics.

academic advisor to…

Joseph Lovering (1813-1892). Graduated Harvard, 1833. Held the Hollis Professorship at Harvard for 50 years, from 1838-1858. Director of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory at Harvard. Later became a Regent of Harvard University. President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Edited a new edition of John Farrar’s Electricity and Magnetism (1842).

Ph.D. advisor to…

Wallace Clement Sabine (1868-1919). Graduated Ohio State at age 18. Attended Harvard and studied under John Trowbridge, but did not complete his PhD. Admitted to the faculty at Harvard, where he pioneered the field of architectural acoustics. Used his discoveries to design the acoustics for Boston’s Symphony Hall. The unit of sound absorption, the Sabin, is named in his honor. The Wallace Clement Sabine Medal of the Acoustical Society of America was established in 1957 in his honor.

Ph.D. advisor to…

Percy Williams Bridgman (1882-1961). PhD in Physics, Harvard. Professor of Physics, Harvard, 1910-retirement. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1946. Known for the Bridgman effect and the Bridgman–Stockbarger technique. Winner of the Rumford Prize (1917), Elliott Cresson Medal (1932), the Comstock Prize in Physics (1933), and the Bingham Medal (1951). President of the American Physical Society. Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences. Foreign Member of the Royal Society and Honorary Fellow of the Physical Society of London. His doctor students included Francis Birch (winner of the Arthur L. Day Medal, William Bowie Medal, National Medal of Science, Vetlesen Prize, and Penrose Medal).

Ph.D. advisor to…

John Clarke Slater (1900-1976). PhD in Physics, Harvard, 1923. Appointed chairman of the Physics Department at MIT, 1930. Worked with Bell Laboratories and the MIT Radiation Laboratory during WW2 to develop the foundations of radar technology. Proposed to Niels Bohr and Hans Kramers the idea that led to the Bohr-Kramers-Slater theory of quantum mechanics. Winner of the William Langmuir Award and the National Medal of Science. His doctoral students included William Shockley (Nobel Prize winner), Fernando Corbato (Turing Award winner), and Nathan Rosen (conceived the Einstein-Rosen bridge while working with Albert Einstein).

Ph.D. advisor to…

Marvin Chodorow (1913-2005). PhD in Physics, MIT, 1939. Professor, Stanford University. Founding chairman of the Division of Physics and Electrical Engineering at Stanford, 1962. Known for his work on microwave tube technology, particular the reflex klystron. Member of the National Academy of Science, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and National Academy of Engineering. New York Times Obituary.

EE thesis advisor to…

Ed Rothwell

Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (1866–1932). Attended the University of Bishop’s College in Sherbrooke, Quebec, but did not graduate. Worked with Thomas Edison as a junior technician in his West Orange, New Jersey, laboratory. Appointed Professor in the newly formed Electrical Engineering Department at Purdue University, 1892. Personally recruited by George Westinghouse in 1893 to head the new Electrical Engineering Department at Western University of Pennsylvania (later the University of Pittsburgh). Inventor of the radio detector and developer of the heterodyne principle. Inventor of amplitude modulation and underwater signaling using acoustics (precursor to sonar). Holder of more than 500 patents. In 1906 he led the team that first successfully broadcast a radio signal across the Atlantic Ocean. Winner of the IRE Medal of Honor and the John Scott Medal. Awarded the Scientific American Safety at Sea Gold Medal.

Ph.D. advisor to…

Edward Bennett (1876-). Ph.D., Western University of Pennsylvania (later the University of Pittsburgh), 1897. Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison (1909-1943). Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. Established radio station 9XM (later WHA) at the University of Wisconsin in 1914, later becoming its director and manager.

Ph.D. advisor to…

Ronold Wyeth Percival King  (1905-2006).  Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1932. Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Physics, Harvard University, (1946–1972). Noted researcher on antenna theory. IEEE Life Fellow, Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Winner of the IEEE Centennial medal and the IEEE Distinguished Achievement Award.

Ph.D. advisor to…

Kun-Mu Chen (1933- ). Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University, 1960. Professor, Michigan State University (1967-1999). Held the inaugural Richard M. Hong Chair of Electrical Engineering, Michigan State University (1995-1999). IEEE Life Fellow, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Taiwanese American Foundation.

Ph.D. advisor to…

Ed Rothwell