Two veteran MIT faculty members in the School of Engineering have been appointed to endowed professorships, their department heads have announced.
They are:
Dr. Charles C. Ladd, who has been selected to be one of the holders of the Edmund K. Turner Chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
Dr. Joseph L. Smith Jr., who has been named the first holder of the Samuel C. Collins Senior Faculty Chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The announcements were made by Professor Rafael L. Bras, head of civil and environmental engineering, and by Professor Nam P. Suh, head of mechanical engineering.
The Collins Chair honors the late Professor Collins, who taught at MIT for more than 30 years, and who died in 1984. He was known internationally as a pioneer in the development of practical helium liquefiers and as the founder of the MIT Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory. The chair was established by donations from Professor Collins' widow, Mrs. Lena Collins, and other donations from friends, colleagues and companies, including the BOC Group and its subsidiary, AIRCO Industry Gases, and Helix Technology Corp.
The Turner Chair was established in 1915 by Edmund K. Turner, Class of 1870. Professor Chiang C. Mei is the current holder of the other Edmund K. Turner Chair.
Professor Ladd, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, received an AB from Bowdoin College and the SB (1955), SM (1957) and ScD (1961) from MIT. His honors include the Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize (1969) from the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Croes Medal (1973), the Norman Medal (1976), his department's Effective Teaching Award (1980) and the Hogentogler Award (1990) from the American Society of Testing Materials.
Professor Smith received the ScD (1959) from MIT and worked closely with the late Professor Collins. In 1964 he became director of the Cryogenic Engineering Laboratory, continuing the tradition of research in the field which the fund supporting the Collins Professorship was established to expand and strengthen. Professor Smith, whose area is the application of cryogenic engineering to superconductors, also holds the BME (1952) and the MS (1953), both from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. His honors include the Edward Longstreth Medal of Merit from the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.
A version of this article appeared in the October 5, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 39, Number 7).
