A. James Clark School of Engineering

Coordinates: 38°59′27.4″N 76°56′17.4″W / 38.990944°N 76.938167°W / 38.990944; -76.938167

A. James Clark School of Engineering
Glenn L. Martin Institute of Technology in 2007
Established	1894
Type	Public
Dean	Darryll Pines, Ph.D.
Undergraduates	2,436
Postgraduates	1,618
Location	College Park, Maryland, USA
Campus	Suburban
Website	http://www.eng.umd.edu/

The A. James Clark School of Engineering is the engineering college of the University of Maryland, College Park. The Clark School of Engineering is nationally ranked and consistently considered to be among the Top 20 engineering programs in the United States. The school consists of fourteen buildings on the College Park campus that cover over 750,000 sq ft (70,000 m²). The school's location in close proximity to Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and technology-driven institutions such as NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, gives students extraordinary opportunities to perform state of the art research and propel their entrepreneurial ambitions.

History

Civil engineering students of the Maryland Agricultural College, circa 1890s.

The engineering school was originally founded in 1894 under the name The College of Engineering at what was then known as the Maryland Agricultural College. In 1949, the school was renamed the Glenn L. Martin College of Engineering and Aeronautical Sciences. In 1994, the college took its current name, the A. James Clark School of Engineering.^[1] A. James Clark is a 1950 engineering graduate of the university who is chairman and chief executive officer of Clark Enterprises, Inc. Clark's financial gifts to the university were honored, in return, with the name of the Engineering School.

Reputation

In 2007, The Princeton Review ranked the Clark School as the sixth-best engineering program in the nation. The 2007 U.S. News and World Report placed it at 10th in the nation among public engineering schools and 16th among all engineering schools.^[2] Additionally, the Institute of Higher Education and Center for World-Class Universities ranked the A. James Clark School thirteenth worldwide.^{[citation needed]}

Departments

• Aerospace Engineering
• Bioengineering
• Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Fire Protection Engineering – The A. James Clark School is home to the only fully accredited undergraduate program in the nation and one of two graduate degree programs in fire protection engineering.^[3]
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Notable people

Alumni

The following individuals are alumni of the School of Engineering at the University of Maryland. Graduating class year is denoted in parentheses.^[4]

• Frederick S. Billig (M.S. 1958, Ph.D. 1964) – pioneer of scramjet technology^[5]
• Adisai Bodharamik (1971) - Telecommunications entrepreneur, served as Thailand's minister of tourism, commerce, and education.^[6]
• Robert Briskman (1961) – Co-founder of Sirius Radio
• Harry Clifton Byrd (1908) - President of the University of Maryland from 1935 to 1954^[6]
• A. James Clark (1950) – Chairman and CEO of Clark Enterprises, Inc., benefactor^[6]
• William P. Cole, Jr. (1910) - Lawyer and U.S. Congressman^[6]
• Gordon England (1961) – Deputy Secretary of Defense
• Michael D. Griffin (1977) – Director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• Brian Hinman (1982) – Entrepreneur and educational innovator, benefactor
• Jeong H. Kim (1991) – President of Bell Labs, benefactor
• George J. Laurer (1951) – Developed the Universal Product Code (UPC)
• Edward A. Miller (1950) – 2005 Charles Stark Draper Prize recipient, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research and Development
• James W. Plummer (1953) – 2005 Charles Stark Draper Prize recipient, Director of the National Reconnaissance Office
• Judith Resnick (1977) - Astronaut killed aboard the Challenger space shuttle^[6]
• Millard Tydings (1910) - U.S. Congressman and Senator^[6]

Benefactors

The following individuals are notable benefactors, but are not alumni of the A. James Clark School of Engineering.^[4]

• Robert Fischell – Medical instruments inventor, earned an M.S. in physics from the University of Maryland in 1953.^[7]
• Glenn L. Martin – Aerospace industry pioneer

References

1. ^ University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering: About Us: Fact and Figures
2. ^ U. Maryland professor engineering a growing university , The Diamondback, May 15, 2007.
3. ^ About the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, University of Maryland
4. ^ ^{a b} University of Maryland A. James Clark School of Engineering: About Us: Fact and Figures
5. ^ Frederick S. Billig, Ph.D., 1933–2006, Innovation Hall of Fame, University of Maryland, retrieved August 12, 2010.
6. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Members, UMD Alumni Association, retrieved May 10, 2010.
7. ^ Dr. Robert E. Fischell and the Fischell Family, Bioengineering, University of Maryland, retrieved May 10, 2010.

External links

• Official website