2008 Morison Lecture and Prize in Science, Technology and Society

‘The New Epoch’ and the 21st Century Imperative for Engineering History

Abstract:
On behalf of MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society and the School of Engineering, we are writing to invite you to the 2008 Morison Lecture and Prize in Science, Technology and Society. The Morison Lecture and Prize, established by the Morison family and the Hitchiner Manufacturing Co., Inc., recognizes the technical and societal accomplishments of several generations of Morison family members, and of the engineers of the Hitchiner Co. as well as the contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty members and graduates to the growth and success of that company.

The Morison Lecture and Prize in Science, Technology and Society is intended to honor individuals, selected internationally, who have demonstrated commitment to, and effectiveness in, carrying out the ideals of the Morison family. The Morison Prize recognizes the accomplishments of an individual who has made major contributions at the interface between science and technology on the one hand and matters of societal concern on the other.

We are very pleased to announce that David P. Billington has been selected as the recipient of the 2008 Morison Lecture and Prize in Science, Technology, and Society. His talk, “‘The New Epoch’ and the 21st Century Imperative for Engineering History,” will be held on Friday, May 2nd, at 2:00 pm in MIT’s Bartos Theater (lower level of building E15). We invite you to attend the lecture and a reception, which will be held immediately following in the atrium area outside of Bartos.

Billington is the Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Engineering, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Director, Program of Architecture and Engineering, at Princeton University. Professor Billington is well known at Princeton for connecting engineering to other disciplines within the University to the humanities, art, science and politics. His courses in “Structures and the Urban Environment” and “Engineering in the Modern World” combine the study of engineering with an exploration of the aesthetic and social values intrinsic to it, an association of ideas that have made them some of the most popular courses among engineering and non-engineering students for decades. Billington has taught perhaps 5,000 Princeton undergraduates since joining the faculty in 1960. He specializes in structural analysis and design with an emphasis on concrete structures, bridge design, thin shell concrete structures, and the history and aesthetics of structures as an art form.

Billington’s recent publications include Power, Speed and Form – Engineers and the Making of the Twentieth Century (with David P. Billington, Jr.) (Princeton University Press, 2006); The Art of Structural Design: A Swiss Legacy (Yale University Press, 2003); Robert Maillart: Builder, Designer and Architect (Cambridge University Press, 1997); The Innovators: The Engineering Pioneers Who Made America Modern (John Wiley & Sons, 1996); and Robert Maillart and the Art of Reinforced Concrete (The MIT Press, 1990). In 1996, Princeton honored Billington with the President's Distinguished Teaching Award in recognition of his sustained record of excellence as a teacher at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences. In 1999 the Engineering News Record named Billington one of the five top educators in the construction industry over the past 125 years. In 2003, he received the Director's Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award from the National Science Foundation. Recently, the National Academy of Engineering selected Billington as its Walter Robb Engineering Education Senior Fellow for 2005–2006. In 2006 he served as a Robert Noyce Visiting Professor at Grinnell College.

Please join us on May 2nd for Professor Billington's Morison Lecture and Prize in Science, Technology and Society.