Thayer School of Engineering - History

History

Thayer School is named for Sylvanus Thayer, a Dartmouth alumnus from the class of 1807. Thayer was known as "the father of West Point" for his sixteen-year superintendency at the United States Military Academy, where he developed an extensive engineering curriculum unlike any other in the United States at the time. After thirty years of professional service in the Army Corps of Engineers, Thayer endowed $70,000 to Dartmouth College in 1867 for the establishment of a school of engineering, initially called the Thayer School of Civil Engineering.

The school opened four years later in 1871 with six students. The curriculum borrowed heavily from the model developed by Thayer at West Point; graduates of the two-year program were awarded a degree in civil engineering (C.E.). Robert Fletcher, the first director and dean of the school, was also its only instructor for several years. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, the school's enrollment, funding, and faculty size steadily increased.

Under Dean Frank Warren Garran (1933–1945), Thayer experienced extensive expansion and modernization. Thayer's curriculum expanded to incorporate mechanical engineering and electrical engineering, as well as a dual business/engineering administration degree from the Tuck School of Business. 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. Dean William P. Kimball (1945–61) continued the school's growing emphasis on research and established the first master's degrees for students wishing to earn more than a Bachelor of Engineering.

In 1961, Myron Tribus ascended to the position of dean, 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 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 degrees in engineering.

From the 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century, the Thayer School saw expansion into new fields such as nanotechnology and biochemical engineering, as well as collaboration with other nearby institutions such as Dartmouth Medical School, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. 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.