Joseph M. Pettit
| Joseph Mayo Pettit | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 15, 1916 Rochester, Minnesota, United States |
| Died | September 15, 1986 (aged 70) Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Fields | Electronic Engineer |
| Institutions |
Stanford University Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Alma mater |
University of California, Berkeley Stanford University |
| Doctoral students | Donald Pederson |
| Notable awards |
President's Certificate of Merit (1949) IEEE Founders Medal (1983) |
Joseph Mayo Pettit (July 15, 1916 – September 15, 1986) was an engineer who became dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering from 1958 to 1972, and president of the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1972 to 1986.
While president of Georgia Tech, Pettit advanced the causes of research and industrial development at the school; Tech's research budget surpassed the $100 million mark and Pettit headed Tech's $100 million Centennial Campaign.
Joseph M. Pettit was born in Rochester, Minnesota. He earned a B.S. degree from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1938, an Engineer degree from Stanford University in 1940, and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1942.
From 1940 to 1942, Pettit served as an instructor at the University of California. He then joined the World War II radar countermeasures project at the Radio Research Laboratory of Harvard University. Following the war effort, Pettit became supervising engineer with Airborne Instruments Laboratory in New York.
In 1947, Pettit joined the faculty of Stanford University, and was named Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1954. He was named Dean of the Stanford School of Engineering in 1958, and would remain in the position until 1972.
Pettit became president of the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1972. During his 14-year tenure as president, Pettit was credited with turning Georgia Tech into a top tier research institution. Pettit has also received credit for shifting Georgia Tech back to its roots with regards to providing assistance with economic development within the state of Georgia. In the decades known for the Vietnam War and the launch of Sputnik, research at Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute had become so tied with NASA and the Department of Defense that local industrial development had been largely forgotten. In 1975, the Georgia General Assembly designated the Engineering Experiment Station (now the Georgia Tech Research Institute) as the "Georgia Productivity Center". Georgia was the first state to designate such a center to encourage business productivity.
...
Wikipedia