Leon Trilling (July 15, 1924

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

- April 20, 2018), an aeronautical engineer and historian of technology, was professor emeritus in

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, and co-founder of the Massachusetts Department of Education's statewide

METCO The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, Inc. (METCO, Inc.) is the largest and second-longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country and a national model for the few other voluntary desegregation bu ...

(Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) Program. He retired from MIT in 1994 and in 1996, received the university's Martin Luther King Leadership Award “in recognition of his deep and enduring commitment to improving the quality of education for people of color.”

Early life and education

Trilling was born to Oswald and Regina (Zakhejm) Trillingk, a Jewish family living in

, Poland. Before coming to the United States in 1940, the family fled to France in the 1930s. Trilling enrolled in

Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(BS in mechanical engineering in 1944, a master of science in 1946, and a PhD in aeronautics in 1948) and in 1945, became a naturalized citizen.

Early career

He spent a year in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship after spending time as a Caltech research fellow and instructor. In 1951, he began his career at MIT as a research associate in the Department of Aeronautical Engineering. In 1963, he studied gas dynamics at the University of Paris on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He joined the faculty of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, based in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, in 1978.

METCO

Trilling was president of the

Brookline Brookline may refer to: Places in the United States * Brookline, Massachusetts, a town near Boston * Brookline, Missouri * Brookline, New Hampshire * Brookline (Pittsburgh), a neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania * Brookline, Vermont See ...

School Committee. Working with community members and Governor and Mrs.

Michael Dukakis Michael Stanley Dukakis (; born November 3, 1933) is an American retired lawyer and politician who served as governor of Massachusetts from 1975 to 1979 and again from 1983 to 1991. He is the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history a ...

, they launched METCO which is the “second-oldest voluntary program in the country dedicated to increasing diversity in schools.”. It was initially implemented by the implemented by the Federation for Housing and Equal Rights (FHER).

References

External links

Bridge Leader Interview: Leon Trilling (2002)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trilling, Leon MIT School of Engineering faculty California Institute of Technology alumni Aeronautical engineers Historians of science People from Białystok School board members in Massachusetts People from Brookline, Massachusetts Historians of technology Polish emigrants to the United States 20th-century Polish Jews 1924 births 2018 deaths