Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (born August 24, 1940) is an
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 m ...
alumnus who was chairman of the
American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and president of the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
(ISO) from 2003 to 2004.
In 2011, ''
American Heritage Dictionary
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, p ...
'' admitted his decapitalized surname,
smoot, meaning a distance of , as one of the 10,000 new words added to their fifth edition. The term is named for Smoot from his undergraduate days when he was used as a
unit of measure
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity, defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multi ...
on the
Harvard Bridge
The Harvard Bridge (also known locally as the MIT Bridge, the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, and the "Mass. Ave." Bridge) is a steel haunched girder bridge carrying Massachusetts Avenue ( Route 2A) over the Charles River and connecting Back Bay, ...
at MIT during a
fraternity pledge activity.
Early life and education
Smoot was born August 24, 1940 in Bexar County, Texas. He attended
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 m ...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1962. He then attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he obtained his Juris Doctor, JD.
Career
From 2000–2005, he served as vice president for external voluntary standards relations of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). Prior to that, he was ITI's executive vice president for 23 years.
Smoot gave a speech to a hearing of the United States House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Technology on March 20, 2000, titled "The Role of Technical Standards in Today's Society and in the Future".
He returned to MIT on October 4, 2008, for a 50th anniversary celebration, including the installation of a plaque on the bridge. Smoot was also presented with an official unit of measurement: a smoot stick. On May 7, 2016, he served as the grand marshal of the parade marking the centenary of MIT's moving from Boston's Back Bay into Cambridge.
Personal life
Smoot lives in San Diego with his spouse Sandra Smoot. He is also a representative of the MIT Education Council. He has two sons, both of whom also attended MIT.
Smoot is a distant relative of Senator Reed Smoot.
References
External links
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"Someone San Diego show know" ''San Diego Tribune'', October 9, 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smoot, Oliver
1940 births
Living people
Georgetown University Law Center alumni
Lambda Chi Alpha
Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni