Thayer School Of Engineering
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Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth (Dartmouth Engineering) offers graduate and undergraduate education in engineering sciences at
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
,
Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of Eng ...
, United States. The school was established in 1867 with funds from Colonel and Brevet Brigadier
Sylvanus Thayer Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer (June 9, 1785 – September 7, 1872) also known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineerin ...
, a Dartmouth alumnus also known for his work in establishing an engineering curriculum at the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
at
West Point, New York West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
. Located in a three-building complex along the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
on Dartmouth's campus, the school offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees, as well as dual-degree programs with institutions throughout the US. In 2016, Dartmouth Engineering became the first US national research university, where more than 50 percent of the graduating class to earn undergraduate engineering degrees were women.


History

Thayer School is named for
Sylvanus Thayer Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer (June 9, 1785 – September 7, 1872) also known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineerin ...
, an alumnus of Dartmouth in the class of 1807. Thayer was known as the "Father of West Point" for his 16-year superintendency of West Point's
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a fort, since it sits on strategic high groun ...
, where he developed an extensive engineering curriculum unlike any other in the United States at the time. In 1867, after 30 years of professional service in the Army Corps of Engineers, Thayer endowed Dartmouth College with $40,000 (and increased the gift to $70,000 by 1871) for the establishment of a school of engineering, initially called the Thayer School of Civil Engineering. The school officially opened in 1871, with six students. The curriculum borrowed heavily from the model which Thayer himself had developed at West Point; graduates of the two-year program were awarded a degree in
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, sewage ...
(C.E.). Though Robert Fletcher, the first director and dean of the school, was also its only instructor for several years, the enrollment, funding, and faculty of the School increased markedly throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Under the administration of Frank Warren Garran (dean of the School from 1933 to 1945), Thayer experienced extensive expansion and modernization. Thayer's curriculum expanded to incorporate
mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...
and
electrical engineering 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 l ...
, as well as a dual business/engineering administration degree from the
Tuck School of Business The Tuck School of Business (also known as Tuck, and formally known as the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance) is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Founded in ...
. Garran also oversaw the establishment of Cummings Hall, the Thayer School's first dedicated physical plant, and the institution of the school's first major research program, which was in
radiophysics Radiophysics (also modern writing "radio physics") is a branch of physics focused on the theoretical and experimental study of certain kinds of radiation, its emission, propagation and interaction with matter. The term is used in the following majo ...
. Dean William P. Kimball (1945–61) continued the school's growing emphasis on research and established the first
master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
s for students wishing to earn more than a
Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...
. In 1961,
Myron Tribus Myron T. Tribus (October 30, 1921 – August 31, 2016) was an American organizational theorist, who was the director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Study at MIT from 1974 to 1986. He was known as leading supporter and interpreter of W. Ed ...
became dean of the School, placing a heavy emphasis on the practical, problem-solving aspects of engineering as well as the traditional, theoretical base of the discipline. Tribus developed an integrated curriculum and introduced
design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design'' ...
courses to the school to provide Thayer students with real-life experience in creative applications of engineering. Under Tribus, the Thayer School offered its first
doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
s in engineering. From the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century, the Thayer School saw expansion into new fields such as
nanotechnology Nanotechnology, also shortened to nanotech, is the use of matter on an atomic, molecular, and supramolecular scale for industrial purposes. The earliest, widespread description of nanotechnology referred to the particular technological goal o ...
and
biochemical engineering Biochemical engineering, also known as bioprocess engineering, is a field of study with roots stemming from chemical engineering and biological engineering. It mainly deals with the design, construction, and advancement of unit processes that inv ...
, as well as collaboration with such nearby institutions as
Dartmouth Medical School The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is o ...
, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center research facility headquartered in Hanover, New Hampshire, that provides scientific and engineering ...
. In the early first decade of the 21st century, the core curriculum for undergraduates was revamped under Dean Lewis Duncan (1998–2004), making the school's offerings more accessible to non-major Dartmouth students. The MacLean Engineering Sciences Center (ESC), completed in 2006, was a $21 million project to expand the school's classrooms and research centers.


Campus

The Thayer School is located on the campus of
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
, which is situated in the rural,
Upper Valley The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Islan ...
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
town of
Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university Dartmouth College, the U.S. Army Corps of Eng ...
. The campus of the Thayer School sits in a complex on the west side Dartmouth's campus near the
Connecticut River The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
. When classes first began in 1871, Sylvanus Thayer's endowment had not provided for a physical plant. Consequently, the school was an itinerant institution for many years, occupying parts of various College buildings and, at one point, a former structure of the
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts (NHC) was founded and incorporated in 1866, as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College. In 1893, NHC moved to Durham, where it became the University of New Ha ...
. In 1938, Dartmouth president
Ernest Martin Hopkins Ernest Martin Hopkins (November 6, 1877 – August 13, 1964) served as the 11th President of Dartmouth College from 1916 to 1945. Dartmouth Presidency At the dedication of the Hopkins Center for the Arts in 1962, the speaker, then- Governor ...
successfully lobbied the
Board of Trustees A board of directors (commonly referred simply as the board) is an executive committee that jointly supervises the activities of an organization, which can be either a for-profit or a nonprofit organization such as a business, nonprofit organiz ...
to construct an independent facility for the school. $200,000 were spent to build Horace Cummings Memorial Hall, which with several major additions (built in 1945-46 and 1989) served as Thayer's only facility for nearly 70 years. In 2004, construction began on the MacLean Engineering Sciences Center (ESC), which was completed in 2006. At the cost of nearly $21 million, the new center adds both classroom and research space to the Thayer School. The Thayer School shares the Murdough Center (containing the Feldberg Business & Engineering Library) with the adjacent
Tuck School of Business The Tuck School of Business (also known as Tuck, and formally known as the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance) is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Founded in ...
.


Academics

The Thayer School serves as both
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
's undergraduate department of engineering, as well as a graduate school offering advanced degrees. Undergraduate
majors Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...
can receive their
Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
degree in engineering at the school, and may choose to continue on to earn a
Bachelor of Engineering A Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) or a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) is an academic undergraduate degree awarded to a student after three to five years of studying engineering at an accredited college or university. In the UK, a Bache ...
(B.E.) degree in an additional year or less. Thayer also offers a dual-degree program for undergraduates at other colleges who wish to earn their bachelor's degree at their home institution and their B.E. at Thayer. As a college academic department, the school's undergraduate offerings are open to any Dartmouth student, including non-majors. Thayer offers several
graduate degree Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...
programs, including a
Master of Engineering A Master of Engineering (abbreviated MEng, M.E. or M.Eng.) is either an academic or professional master's degree in the field of engineering. International variations Australia In Australia, the Master of Engineering degree is a research deg ...
(M.Eng) in Biomedical Engineering,
Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
(M.S.), and
Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
(Ph.D.) in engineering. The school also offers a
Master of Engineering Management Master of Engineering Management (MEM) (or Master of Science in Engineering Management (MSEM)) is a professional master's degree that bridges the gap between the field of engineering or technology and the field of business management. Engineering ...
(M.E.M.) degree in conjunction with the adjacent
Tuck School of Business The Tuck School of Business (also known as Tuck, and formally known as the Amos Tuck School of Administration and Finance) is the graduate business school of Dartmouth College, a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Founded in ...
, and a combination Ph.D/
Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...
(M.D.) from
Dartmouth Medical School The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth is the graduate medical school of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The fourth oldest medical school in the United States, it was founded in 1797 by New England physician Nathan Smith. It is o ...
. The school also has the United States' first engineering Ph.D. Innovation Program.


Research and entrepreneurship

The Thayer School emphasizes the cross-disciplinary nature of its research topics. In 2007, sponsored research at the school amounted to $16.2 million. Research at Thayer is divided into three general "focus areas": engineering in medicine, energy technologies, and complex systems. Projects within each focus area are divided by three "research categories":
biomedical Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine)
,
biochemical Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology an ...
,
chemical A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wi ...
&
environmental engineering Environmental engineering is a professional engineering discipline that encompasses broad scientific topics like chemistry, biology, ecology, geology, hydraulics, hydrology, microbiology, and mathematics to create solutions that will protect and a ...
(BBCEE),
electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by ...
&
computer engineering Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers ...
, &
engineering physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...
(ECEEP), and
materials Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geologic ...
& mechanical systems engineering (MMSE). The Thayer School promotes its connections to engineering
entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
. The Cook Engineering Design Center, founded in 1978, acts to solicit industry-sponsored projects for degree candidates to work on. The school also offers a variety of conferences, programs, and internships to foster student connections to the professional world. Companies and products that have emerged from the Thayer School include emeritus professor Robert Dean's Creare, Inc. and Dartmouth music professor
Jon Appleton Jon Howard Appleton (January 4, 1939 – January 30, 2022) was an American composer, an educator and a pioneer in electro-acoustic music. His earliest compositions in the medium, e.g. "Chef d'Oeuvre" and "Newark Airport Rock" (1967) attracted at ...
's work on the
Synclavier The Synclavier is an early digital synthesizer, polyphonic digital sampling system, and music workstation manufactured by New England Digital Corporation of Norwich, Vermont. It was produced in various forms from the late 1970s into the early 1 ...
synthesizer. The school maintains a list of
startup companies A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...
established by its current faculty.


Rankings and admissions

In 2007, the Thayer School was ranked 47th by '' U.S. News & World Report'' among American engineering schools. It was also included in ''
BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...
s unranked list of 60 "Best Design Schools in the World". Admissions for undergraduate students are handled by
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
's Office of Undergraduate Admissions. Admission to graduate programs, including the B.E. degree, requires an undergraduate background in engineering and mathematics or science. In the fall of 2006, Thayer accepted 14.5% of applicants overall. Average
Graduate Record Examination The Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) is a standardized test that is an admissions requirement for many graduate schools in the United States and Canada and a few other countries. The GRE is owned and administered by Educational Testing Servi ...
(GRE) test scores of applicants in verbal, quantitative, and analytical sections were 601, 778, and 695, respectively.


People


Student profile and student life

As of the 2007–2008 academic year, the Thayer School has an enrollment of 354 students: 107 undergraduates, 62 doctoral candidates, 27 B.E. students, 76 M.E.M. students, 20 M.S. students, and 13 student pursuing special studies. The school offers a number of professional and community service student groups, as well as social life governance councils for the student body.


Faculty

The Thayer School currently claims 74 active instructors, including 29 tenured or tenure-track faculty, 16 research or instructional faculty, 22 adjunct faculty members, and seven lecturers. Notable former faculty include
Arthur Kantrowitz Arthur Robert Kantrowitz (October 20, 1913 – November 29, 2008) was an American scientist, engineer, and educator. Kantrowitz grew up in The Bronx and graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School.Overbye, Dennis"Arthur R. Kantrowitz, Whose ...
,
emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
professor of engineering, and
Myron Tribus Myron T. Tribus (October 30, 1921 – August 31, 2016) was an American organizational theorist, who was the director of the Center for Advanced Engineering Study at MIT from 1974 to 1986. He was known as leading supporter and interpreter of W. Ed ...
, the dean of the Thayer School for most of the 1960s. In 2020, the Thayer School introduced a new position, Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion, to help Thayer's current and future efforts in diversity and inclusion.
Petra Bonfert-Taylor Petra Bonfert-Taylor is a German-born mathematician known for research in complex analysis and her work in web development for the International Mathematical Union (IMU) Committee for Women in Mathematics. She is professor of engineering and Ass ...
was named to this position in August 2020.


Alumni

As of 2007, Thayer has 4,046 engineering alumni in all 50
U.S. states In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
and over 50 countries. Nearly 3,000 of the graduates received a B.E. or a graduate degree, with the remaining 1,000 earning only the undergraduate A.B. degree. The school claims that over 90% of graduates become employed within six months of graduation.


Notes


References

* * *Kimball, William Phelps (1971). The First Hundred Years of Engineering at Dartmouth College. The University Press of New England, Hanover, NH


External links


Thayer School of EngineeringThayer's Flickr Photostream Page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thayer School Of Engineering Engineering schools and colleges in the United States Engineering universities and colleges in New Hampshire Educational institutions established in 1867 1867 establishments in New Hampshire Dartmouth College