Thayer School"
It has been customary for the October issue of this column to be devoted primarily to news of the School, its students and its faculty ing the late-lamented summer "vacation." An announcement concerning the future program of the School appears on earlier pages of this magazine. This program is the culmination of a two-year study which has occupied your dean and your faculty intensively over that period. Trustee action was taken in June and the preparation of the announcement in various forms and publications, as well as the planning of procedures for implementing the plan, has accounted for a considerable portion of the dean's summer.
It will interest alumni, and people who regard college students as the playboys of the nation, to know that of the 31 first-year students returning for second-year work 27 have had steady summer employment. They have spread themselves pretty far "around the girdled earth" from New Hampshire to California, from Florida to Alaska, and from these United States to Germany. The last-named location has been occupied by a student working for Machinenfabrik Stromag, Unna, Germany, a position obtained through IASTE, the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience. That the School and its students are becoming rather widely known is shown also by the fact that these 27 students have been employed by 22 different companies.
The conservative faculty has also ridden off in many directions, though the average man-miles may be a little lower. Probably widest rangers have been Ed Brown '35, and Carl Long, professor and instructor respectively in civil engineering, who spent the entire summer in Alaska where they were engaged by the Western Electric Company as observers and directors on the installation of stations in the new radio communications system in Alaska, known, I believe, as White Alice (Alaska Integrated Communications Exchange). A few snatches from a letter of Ed Brown's may suggest the nature of their work and surroundings: "Greetings from Cape Newenham known as 'the loneliest spot on earth'... planes must land uphill and take off downhill... since angle computations were carried to one thousandth of a second, the accuracy was mildly exacting ... wouldn't be surprised if it costs about $200 to place a yard of concrete ... the one commodity that Site 4 is famous for is the weather ... yesterday during a pour the winds suddenly increased from about 0 to 50 knots, the temperature dropped 20 degrees and the sun was blotted out by a dense fog ... for recreation we have been doing a little beachcombing and hiking. The only rewards have been a small amount of ivory and a large amount of fatigue."
Huntington Curtis, assistant professor of electrical engineering, was another visitor to the far north when he spent a month at Thule and Sondrestrom Fjord, Greenland, and at Frobisher Bay on Baffin Island. This trip was made in connection with Thayer School's research program in audio-frequency signals known as whistlers and dawn chorus. As anticipated, he was unable to pick up whistlers. However, dawn chorus — a queer succession of peeping sounds rather like frogs in a marsh and in some way associated with ionospheric conditions that also produce whistlers — was recorded for the first time so far north. After his return from Greenland, Professor Curtis spent a week in Schenectady attending a teaching methods seminar built around General Electric's advanced technical education program.
Joe Ermenc, professor of mechanical engineering, spent eight weeks at the International School of Nuclear Science and Engineering of the Argonne National Laboratory located in Lemont, Ill. Professor Ermenc was one of sixty selected from a large number of applicants for this program which was intended, by lecture and laboratory work, to help those attending the institute to plan and offer nuclear energy courses in their own institutions. Sponsors of the program were the Atomic Energy Commission, Argonne National Laboratory, National Science Foundation, American Society for Engineering Education, and Northwestern University.
Millett Morgan, professor of electrical engineering and director of research, attended meetings of International Geophysical Year committees in Brussels, Belgium, early in September. Dr. Morgan is chairman of the Technical Panel on lonospheric Physics which is advisory to the U. S. Committee on the IGY. The purpose of the Brussels meetings was to draw up a manual for the operation of all ionosphere observing stations throughout the world during 1957-1958, the IGY.
Chi-Neng Shen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, again spent the summer in research work for the Raytheon Company in Waltham, Mass. This work was the outgrowth of his research during the previous summer which also led to the publication of two technical papers.
Ed Sherrard, professor of mechanical engineering, again led the popular Estival String Quartet through a successful summer season in Hanover. The Estival concert series came to a close just before the opening of the Thayer School summer session in which Professor Sherrard directed the mechanical engineering courses.
Farthest southern penetration was made by the dean who attended a Conference on Nuclear Energy and Engineering Education in Gatlinburg, Tenn., early in September. The purpose of this conference, sponsored by the Atomic Energy Commission and the American Society for Engineering Education, was to acquaint engineering deans and university and college presidents with the educational activities of the government agencies in this field and with the assistance which the Atomic Energy Commission will provide for the adoption and offering of educational programs in the engineering schools designed to prepare graduates for work in this new and vital activity.
George Taylor, professor of engineering and management, has returned from sabbatical leave during the second semester of last year. Making his headquarters at Lake Placid, N. Y., Professor Taylor conducted library research culminating in a manuscript on engineering economy which has been published in lithographed form as the textbook for his course in Engineering Economics. He also conducted a two-week industry-training course in this subject during the summer.
S. Russell Stearns '38, professor of civil engineering, who served during 1955-56 as Administrative Assistant to the Dean in order to meet the immediate need created by the resignation a year ago of Assistant Dean Pyke, has asked to be relieved of his administrative responsibilities in order that he may devote full time to teaching, research and consulting work.
Merle L. Thorpe ME'53 has been appointed instructor in mechanical engineering and assistant to the dean for 1956-1957. Since his graduation from Thayer School, where he served for two years as graduate assistant in research, Merle has been with the Research Division of Linde Air Products Company in Buffalo, N. Y. We are delighted to have him rejoin the Thayer School faculty and to welcome him and' his family — Inge and their children, Karon Ann and Merle III — back to the Hanover community.
