Wiesner, Jerome B. , 1915-1994
Dates
- Existence: 1915 May 30 - 1994 October 21
Biography
Jerome Bert Wiesner, 1915-1994, B.S. 1937, M.S. 1938, and Ph.D. 1950 in electrical engineering, University of Michigan, was president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1971 to 1980. In 1940 he was appointed chief engineer for the Acoustical and Records Laboratory of the Library of Congress, where he assisted in developing facilities and equipment and traveled through the South and Southwest with folklorist Alan Lomax, recording regional folk music. He came to MIT in 1942 to work in the Radiation Laboratory, where he helped refine radar and develop ionospheric high frequency radio transmission. In 1945 Wiesner joined the staff at the University of California’s Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico but left the following year to return to MIT, where he became assistant professor of electrical engineering in 1946, associate professor in 1947, and full professor in 1950. From 1946 to 1961 he was associated with the Research Laboratory for Electronics, directing the lab from 1952 to 1961. From 1959 to 1960 he was also acting head of the Department of Electrical Engineering.
In 1961 Wiesner took a leave of absence from the Institute to serve as special assistant to President John F. Kennedy for science and technology and chairman of the President’s Science Advisory Committee. He returned to MIT in 1964 as dean of MIT’s School of Science, having been named an Institute Professor in 1962, and in 1966 he was appointed provost. When he retired from the MIT presidency, he became a life member of the MIT Corporation.
The focus of Wiesner’s research was in the fields of microwave theory, human and machine communications, scatter transmission techniques and engineering, signal processing, radio and radar propagation and phenomena, and military technology.
*Prepared by the Institute Archives, MIT Libraries (November 1995; updated September 2005)
Occupations
Found in 20 Collections and/or Records:
Bernard T. Feld papers
The Bernard Taub Feld papers document his academic, professional, and political pursuits during the period 1943 to 1990. The bulk of the material dates from the mid-1950s, reflecting his establishment in the scientific community and his increased interest in nuclear arms control.
Jerome B. Wiesner papers
Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards award certificates
This collection includes copies of award certificates given in honor of the Wiesners to individual Massachusetts Institute of Technology students or groups of students for contributions to the creative and performing arts.
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner and Dean of the School of Engineering Gordon S. Brown Regarding the Appointment of Jerome Y. Lettvin as Professor of Communications Physiology, 1966 May 17
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Glenn A. Berchtold as Acting Head of the Department of Chemistry, 1965 September 27
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Hamish Nisbet Munro as General Foods Professor of Physiological Chemistry, 1966 January 19
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Herbert S. Bridge as Professor of Physics, 1966 May 18
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of John Ross as Professor of Chemistry, 1966 May 18
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Jule G. Charney as Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, 1966 June 8
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Victor F. Weisskopf as head of the Department of Physics, 1966 September 23
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Provost Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding Lectures on the Relation of Engineering Research and Systems Analysis to the Organization of Medical Care, 1966 November 3
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Provost Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of Robert Arnold Alberty as Dean of the School of Science and Professor of Chemistry, 1966 November 4
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Provost Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the appointment of Samuel J. Mason as Associate Director of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, 1967 January 4
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Letter from Provost Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Use of Facilities for Conferences and Meetings, 1967 January 3
News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Inaugural Committee records
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President and Chancellor, records of Jerome B. Wiesner
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President, records of Karl Taylor Compton and James Rhyne Killian
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President, records of Special Assistant to the President and Ombudsperson Mary Rowe
This collection documents the administrative work of Mary Rowe who held the position of Special Assistant to the President and Ombudsperson at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Materials, dating from 1960 through 2014, include proposals and history, committee files, correspondence and subject files, teaching materials, speeches and writings relating to her work.
Paul E. Schindler papers
The Paul E. Schindler papers include correspondence and transcripts of interviews conducted by Schindler, editor of The Tech, with Massachusetts Institute of Technology Presidents Howard Johnson, Jerome B. Wiesner, and others regarding the November actions of 1970, and other student protests against MIT involvement with defense projects during the Vietnam War.