Oliver R. Smoot
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Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. was Chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and President of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2003 to 2004. He received his Bachelor of Science from MIT and his Juris Doctor (law degree) from Georgetown University.
As a pledge of MIT's Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity in 1958, Smoot's height was used to measure the length of the Harvard Bridge. One day, as he lay repeatedly on (and was often carried to) successive places on the Harvard Bridge (which carries Massachusetts Avenue across the Charles River), markings were made at each distance between his head and feet. The bridge was determined to be 364.4 smoots (plus or minus one ear) in length, each smoot being five feet and seven inches. The markings, periodically repainted, remain to this day. Smoot graduated from MIT with the class of 1962.
Smoot gave a speech to a hearing of the House Science Committee's Subcommittee on Technology on March 20, 2000, entitled “The Role of Technical Standards in Today's Society and in the Future".
He returned to MIT on 4 October 2008 for a 50th anniversary celebration,[1] including the installation of a plaque on the bridge. Smoot was also presented with an official unit of measurement: a smoot stick.[2]
His cousin[3] George Smoot won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006.
[edit] Sources
- Biography by ANSI
- Speech for the House
- NPR Interview on December 7, 2005, on the occasion of his retirement.
- MIT tribute page - he was featured on MIT's daily-changing home page on December 19, 2005
- Tavernor, Robert (2007), Smoot's Ear: The Measure of Humanity, [1]
[edit] References
- ^ Say Hello to Mr. Smoot of Smoot Fame
- ^ Smoot and roll
- ^ Talk of the Nation (2006-10-06). "Winning the Nobel Prize". National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6210148. Retrieved on 2006-10-07.
