Dugald Caleb Jackson (13 February, 1865, Kennett Square – July 1, 1951) was an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the ...

. He received the

IEEE Edison Medal The IEEE Edison Medal is presented by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) "for a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts." It is the oldest medal in this f ...

for "outstanding and inspiring leadership in engineering education and in the field of generation and distribution of electric power".

Early life

Dugald was born into a

quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...

family in Kennett Square,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. His parents were Josiah and Mary Price Jackson. His younger brother, John Price Jackson, co-wrote some books with him and also had a career as an electrical engineer, academic, civil servant and soldier. He attended

The Hill School The Hill School (commonly known as The Hill) is a coeducational preparatory boarding school located on a campus in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, about northwest of Philadelphia. The Hill is part of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization (TSAO). ...

in Pottstown before studying

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

at Pennsylvania State College from which he graduated in 1885.

Early career

After two years teaching electrical engineering at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...

he moved to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

in 1891 as the first professor of Electrical Engineering, heading the Department of Electrical Engineering. He specialised in

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

s and associated machinery alongside technical issues involved in running central stations as independent power stations were known at the time.

At MIT

Jackson headed the Department of Electrical Engineering of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern t ...

(MIT) from 1907 to 1935. He was proponent of student and faculty involvement with industry. Jackson established research as a part of engineering education at MIT and coordinated it with practical experience in industrial settings (for example, with the General Electric Company), and his model spread widely. On 3 April 1911 Jackson participated in a conference at the Hotel Thorndike, in Boston encouraging closer co-operation between

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes ch ...

manufacturers and central station managers in the Boston area. The conference was organised by the Boston Edison Company and Jackson promised the support of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the

(MIT) in providing scientific research to support the development of the electric vehicle industry.

Works

* 1893 ''Text Book on Electromagnetism and the Construction of Dynamos'' * 1895 ''Electricity and Magnetism'' * 1896 ''Alternating Currents and Alternating Current Machinery'' (with John Price Jackson) New York: Macmillan Co. * 1902 ''An Elementary Book on Electricity and Magnetism'' (with John Price Jackson) New York: Macmillan Co.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Dugald C. IEEE Edison Medal recipients 1865 births 1951 deaths MIT School of Engineering faculty American electrical engineers Penn State College of Engineering alumni Cornell University College of Engineering alumni People from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Engineers from Pennsylvania