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Wiesner, Jerome B. , 1915-1994

 Person

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

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MC-0167
Abstract

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.

Dates: 1943 - 1990

Jerome B. Wiesner papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MC-0420
Scope and Contents of the Collection Records about Wiesner's activities at MIT include correspondence, memoranda, and reports from the Department of Electrical Engineering, correspondence about his involvement with the Council for the Arts, and information about his fund raising efforts. A tribute from the MIT faculty upon his retirement from the MIT presidency in 1980 is included. Wiesner's consulting to government, industry, private foundations, and other groups such as the President's Science Advisory Committee, 1960-1961,...
Dates: 1949 - 1994

Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Student Art Awards award certificates

 Collection
Identifier: AC-0307
Scope and Contents of the Collection

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.

Dates: 1984

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

 Item — Box 12: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140151]
Identifier: AC0069_196509_003
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1965 September 27

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

 Item — Box 12: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140151]
Identifier: AC0069_196601_010
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 January 19

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

 Item — Box 12: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140151]
Identifier: AC0069_196605_022
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 May 18

Letter from Dean of the School of Science Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Appointment of John Ross as Professor of Chemistry, 1966 May 18

 Item — Box 12: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140151]
Identifier: AC0069_196605_019
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 May 18

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

 Item — Box 12: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140151]
Identifier: AC0069_196606_013
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 June 8

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

 Item — Box 13: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140169]
Identifier: AC0069_196609_015
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 September 23

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

 Item — Box 13: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140169]
Identifier: AC0069_196611_003
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 November 3

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

 Item — Box 13: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140169]
Identifier: AC0069_196611_005
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1966 November 4

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

 Item — Box 13: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140169]
Identifier: AC0069_196701_004
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1967 January 4

Letter from Provost Jerome B. Wiesner Regarding the Use of Facilities for Conferences and Meetings, 1967 January 3

 Item — Box 13: Series 1a [Barcode: 39080032140169]
Identifier: AC0069_196701_003
Scope and Contents note

News Release issued by the MIT Office of Public Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Dates: 1967 January 3

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Inaugural Committee records

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: AC-0036
Scope and Contents of the Collection The collection consists of records of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) president inaugural committees since 1900. The records are primarily documents with some photographs and memorabilia. The inaugurations of Henry Pritchett, Richard Maclaurin, Ernest F. Nichols, and Samuel Wesley Stratton are documented in notebooks which contain minutes of committee and subcommittee meetings and copies of inaugural addresses. The inaugurations of James R. Killian, Julius A. Stratton,...
Dates: 1900 - 2005

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President and Chancellor, records of Jerome B. Wiesner

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: AC-0008
Scope and Contents of the Collection The collection is composed primarily of records of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The dates of the records in the collection span from 1960 to 1984, though the bulk was created between 1966, when Wiesner was appointed provost, and 1980, when he retired as president of MIT. The collection also includes records created when Wiesner was director of MIT’s Research Laboratory of Electronics (1952-1960), dean of science (1964-1966), and provost (1966-1971). There are a few files...
Dates: 1960 - 1984

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President, records of Karl Taylor Compton and James Rhyne Killian

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: AC-0004
Abstract The collection consists of records created while Karl Taylor Compton (president 1930-1948) and James Rhyne Killian (president 1948-1959) served in the position of president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It contains correspondence, reports, memoranda, and committee materials about the activities of the presidents and their staff, the definition and evolution of policies, and the administration of the Institute. Records document Compton's early efforts to strengthen the...
Dates: 1930 - 1959

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Office of the President, records of Special Assistant to the President and Ombudsperson Mary Rowe

 Collection
Identifier: AC-0232
Abstract

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.

Dates: 1960s–2018

Paul E. Schindler papers

 Collection — Box Shared A: [Barcode: 39080036789524]
Identifier: MC-0202
Scope and Contents

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.

Dates: 1973

"The Worlds of Philip Morrison" symposium audio and video recordings

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: AC-0199
Scope and Contents of the Collection The collection contains audio and video recordings of the symposium held September 26-27, 1986, honoring Massachusetts Institute of Technology Institute Professor Philip Morrison on his 70th birthday. Videotapes are available only for the September 27 session. Speakers at the September 26 session include Gene M. Brown, Bruno Rossi, James Peebles, Walter Lewin, Kenneth Brecher, Alan Guth, Francis Low, Jerome Wiesner, Randall Forsberg, Anthony P. French, Lillian Weber, and Owen Gingerich. ...
Dates: 1986 - 1986