Honorary Degree Recipients
As part of its 141st Commencement exercises on May 16, WPI presented honorary doctorates to the following individuals in honor of their extraordinary career achievements and in recognition of their notable efforts to address important societal issues and problems through the appplication of science, engineering, and mathematics.
Ursula M. Burns
When Xerox Corporation selected a new president in 2007, it turned to an engineer who had already led the introduction of 100 new products and overseen initiatives that helped the company become more competitive and profitable. Accustomed to accepting tough challenges, Ursula Burns, as president and a member of the Xerox board of directors, is now harnessing her business savvy and drive for innovation to help steer the legendary technology company.
A struggling brand a decade ago, Xerox focused on its core competencies, invested in research and development, and made a commitment to produce more efficient and environmentally friendly products, efforts in which Burns played important roles. In 2001 she oversaw one of the critical milestones on the company’s road to recovery, successful contract talks with the company’s unionized workers. Today, with annual sales of $17.6 billion and 55,600 employees worldwide, Xerox is the world’s largest technology and services company specializing in document management.
The first African American woman to serve as president of Xerox, Burns worked her way up from humble beginnings. She grew up in a tough neighborhood on New York’s Lower East Side. Encouraged by her mother to believe in herself and focus on her goals, she earned admission to several colleges. Burns chose to attend Polytechnic Institute of NYU, where she earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering; she went on to receive an M.S. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University. During several summers, she worked as an intern at Xerox, where she was impressed by its heritage of research and engineering.
Early on, Burns displayed a direct, no-nonsense style that would win her widespread respect. During a meeting, she became dismayed when a senior executive failed to correct a manager who claimed that Xerox’s diversity initiatives were resulting in the hiring of less-than-qualified people. Burns rose to challenge him. Rather than take offense, the executive was impressed with her self-confidence and became an early mentor to her.
In time, Burns went on to hold positions at Xerox in product development before becoming executive assistant to Paul Allaire ’60, then chairman and CEO of Xerox. From 1992 to 2000, she led several business teams, including the office color and fax and office network copying businesses, and was then named senior vice president for corporate strategic services. She assumed the presidency of the Business Group Operations in 2002. As president of Xerox, she is responsible for global research, engineering, marketing, and manufacturing of Xerox technology, supplies, and related services, as well as global accounts, information management, corporate strategy, human resources and ethics, and marketing operations.
Burns has won prominent recognition for her professional accomplishments. Most recently, Fortune named Burns one of the 50 most powerful women in business and she was one of Black Enterprise magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America. In 2008 she was named to Forbes magazine’s list of "The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women." Working Women magazine named her one of the top corporate women of color in 2007, and she appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s list of 50 top women to watch in 2006. Time included Burns on its report on “2003 Global Business Influentials.” She has received honorary degrees from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Polytechnic University, which also presented her with the Outstanding Alumna Award in mechanical engineering in 1991.
Burns serves on a number of professional and community boards, including those of MIT, the University of Rochester, American Express, Boston Scientific Corp., FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), the National Academy Foundation, and the U.S. Olympic Committee. She and her husband, Lloyd, are the proud parents of two: Malcolm, a college sophomore, and Melissa, a high school junior.
For her pivotal role in the success of one of America’s premier technology companies and her contributions to engineering excellence and innovation, WPI is proud to confer upon Ursula M. Burns the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa.
Helen Greiner
A day at the movies in 1977 changed Helen Greiner's life. The film was Star Wars, and the 11-year-old Greiner found herself enthralled by the comical droid R2-D2. More than a machine, R2-D2 had a personality, a purpose, and a mind of his own. She decided then that she wanted to help create a world where hard-working robots are a part of everyday life.
Two decades later, she began building that world by co-founding iRobot (the name is a reference to a book by science fiction author Isaac Asimov). Established with colleagues at MIT, the company created a new class of products: affordable robots that relieve humans of tedious and hazardous tasks in the home and on the battlefield. The company's motto "Build cool stuff. Deliver great product. Make money. Have fun. Change the world." is also an apt summary of Greinier's own approach to life.
Born in London, she grew up on Long Island, where she excelled at science and enjoyed experimenting with her family's TRS-80—an early personal computer. She enrolled at MIT, earning a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and an M.S. in computer science. As a graduate student, she interned at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where she helped design robots that could make repairs in space. At MIT she met her future iRobot co-founders: Rodney Brooks, director of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, where Greiner learned about robotics and AI, and fellow student and robot enthusiast Colin Angle.
One of iRobot's most famous creations, the PackBot, has saved lives in Afghanistan and Iraq by searching caves and deactivating roadside bombs. This ingenious 40-pound, tank-like machine that can handle tough terrain, climb stairs, and right itself, is one of a host of successful products that has been a staple for the company.
In 2002 iRobot directed its innovation at the consumer market with Roomba, which could vacuum floors autonomously and return to its home base to recharge. Consumers fell in love with this reasonably priced, practical robot, having bought more than three million units to date. Roomba also changed people's perceptions of robots. Like R2-D2, Roombas are helpful and endearing, leading owners to treat them like pets. "You wouldn't name your toaster," Greiner once said, "but people do name their Roombas."
That early success has been followed by a line of consumer robots that mop, empty gutters, and clean pools, among other chores. They've helped iRobot grow into a $307 million public company with more than 400 employees and offices in four states and five countries. In 2008, Greiner left iRobot to found a new venture, The Droid Works, which will create products in the general area of unmanned aerial vehicles.
Greiner's achievements have won her numerous awards, including election to the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame and being named a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and Entrepreneur of the Year for 2005 by Good Housekeeping magazine.
For helping transform robotics from the realm of science fiction to the reality of everyday life, and for her extraordinary contributions as an entrepreneur, inventor, and engineer, WPI takes great delight in bestowing upon Helen Greiner the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa.
George C. Messenger Jr. ‘51
The vacuum of space is an unforgiving environment for electronic devices, since high-energy ionizing radiation can destroy semiconductors. Today, the fact that satellites work and communicate successfully in space is a testament to the pioneering work of George Messenger, an internationally recognized authority on the hardening of electronic systems.
Messenger’s interest in solid-state electronics and semiconductor devices began in 1951, not long after the invention of the transistor. He earned a B.S. in physics from WPI and joined Philco Corporation (he also holds an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in engineering from California Coast University). He went on to serve as an engineering manager at Hughes Semiconductor, division manager at Transition Corp., and staff scientist at Northrop Corporation. From 1969 to 1975, he also lectured at UCLA. During this time, he began attacking an emerging problem with solid-state devices: their vulnerability to radiation.
Through his pioneering research, he developed the Messenger-Spratt Equation, which describes the effects of neutron radiation on bipolar devices, and discovered the Kirk Effect—also called current-induced base push-out—an apparent increase in the width of the base of bipolar transistors that occurs at very high injection levels and current densities. His discoveries showed how electronics could be hardened against the effects of radiation by shielding them from radiation and developing radiation-tolerant circuits. The work resulted in several patents in the fields of microwave diodes and the semiconductor hardening and more than 50 refereed technical papers. With Milton Ash he wrote The Effects of Radiation on Electronic Systems, considered the bible in the field, and Single Event Phenomena.
Messenger’s work has earned him a number of high honors, including, in 1986, the Annual Merit Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society, the Peter Haas Award for outstanding technical contributions to hardened military and space systems, the Alan Berman Research Publication Award from the Naval Research Laboratory, and election as a life fellow in IEEE for his contributions to the determination of radiation damage to semiconductors and advances in semiconductor technology. He has also received WPI’s Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement.
In 1968 he formed Messenger & Associates, a diversified company that provides engineering consulting, holds real estate, and offers financial management and investment services. In the 1970s he served as vice president and a director of the American Institute of Finance, and his accomplishments as an investor have been covered by Barron’s and other financial news organizations.
He established the Dargon Fund in 1983, and has served as its general manager since then. Based on the superior performance of that venture, he went on to create the Ronda and Crystal funds for investor IRAs and Keoghs, and the Tasman Fund, initially a bond fund. The four funds, which became the Eureka Investment Club in 1994, have been rated among the top five performers in their categories at various times by the Lipper and Nelson ratings agencies.
For his pioneering contributions to the development of solid-state electronics and his impressive record of success as an entrepreneur and investor, WPI takes great pride in conferring upon alumnus George Messenger the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa.
Charles M. Vest
In the realm of technological education, research, and ideas, few institutions are as admired or respected as MIT and the National Academy of Engineering. During a distinguished four-decade career as an educator, researcher, and administrator, Charles Vest has had the unique distinction of leading both of these organizations.
After earning a B.S. in mechanical engineering at West Virginia University, he received an M.S.E. and a Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Michigan, where he began his academic career in 1968 as an assistant professor, becoming a full professor nine years later. In the laboratory, he and his students explored engineering applications of laser optics and holography, developing new ways of using holographic interferometry to measure material properties.
In the early 1980s Vest began a series of appointments at the University of Michigan that culminated in his being named provost and vice president for academic affairs in 1989. The following year, he was named the 15th president of MIT, a post he held for 14 years. During his presidency, the Institute underwent a number of major changes, redeveloping much of its campus, launching new programs in neuroscience and genomic medicine, co-founding the Alliance for Global Sustainability, and broadening the racial and cultural diversity of its students and faculty.
From his position as head of one of the nation’s premier research universities, Vest helped shape national policy on science, technology, and innovation. He championed the importance of open scientific communication and the sharing of intellectual resources. This policy is exemplified by OpenCourseWare, though which MIT has made virtually all of its course materials available free through the Web. By declaring knowledge to a public good, MIT created new opportunity and hope for people around the globe.
Among the roles that Vest is most proud of having played is helping to improve opportunities for women in science, research, and academia at MIT. When a report identified discrimination against women faculty in the School of Science, Vest helped assure that its recommendations were acted on. MIT’s efforts to address the inequalities in the treatment of women in science and technological disciplines helped spur a national discussion that is still having a positive impact on academia.
During his presidency, Vest had the opportunity to influence a number of other national issues as a member of federal committees and commissions, including the President’s Commission of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education. He brought a strong science and engineering background to his service on a bipartisan Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction and a presidential advisory commission on the redesign of the International Space Station.
In 2007 Vest was elected president of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), part of the National Academies, which serve as advisors to government and the public on science, engineering, and medicine. Vest, himself, was elected to the NAE in 1993 for his contributions to holographic interferometry and his educational leadership, and he has contributed to several National Academies studies, including the highly influential report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which highlights the importance of science and engineering to U.S. economic development and competitiveness. The recipient of 11 honorary degrees and the 2006 National Medal of Technology, Vest is the author of three books, including two volumes on higher education.
For his extraordinary record of academic leadership and for the wisdom and insight he has brought to some of the most important technological issues of our time, WPI is honored to confer upon Charles M. Vest the degree of Doctor of Engineering, Honoris Causa.
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