Julius Adams Stratton

Julius Adams Stratton
Born	(1901-05-18)May 18, 1901 Seattle, Washington
Died	July 22, 1994(1994-07-22) (aged 93) Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Awards	IEEE Medal of Honor
Scientific career
Fields	Electrical engineering

Julius Adams Stratton (May 18, 1901 – June 22, 1994) was a U.S. electrical engineer and university administrator. He attended the University of Washington for one year, where he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, then transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's degree in electrical engineering (EE) in 1926. He then followed graduate studies in Europe and the Technische Hochschule of Zurich (ETH Zurich), Switzerland, awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science in 1927.

He served as the president of MIT between 1959 and 1966, after serving the university in several lesser posts, notably appointments to provost in 1949, vice president in 1951, and chancellor in 1956. He also served as the chairman of the Ford Foundation between 1964 and 1971. During that period, Stratton was seconded to chair a Congressionally established "Commission on Marine Sciences, Engineering and Resources" whose work culminated in a report, "Our Nation and the Sea" that had a major influence on ocean sciences and management in the United States and abroad. The commission itself became commonly referred to as the Stratton Commission.

Stratton was also a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering.[1]

Stratton collected his speeches in a 1966 book titled Science and the Educated Man: Selected Speeches of Julius A. Stratton (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966), with a foreword by the historian of technology Elting E. Morison who had been on the faculty of MIT as a professor of humanities in the Sloan School of Industrial Management from 1946 to 1966.

MIT's Julius Adams Stratton Student Center at 84 Massachusetts Avenue is named in his honor.

References

• Johnson, Howard W. (March 1996). "Julius Adams Stratton (18 May 1901-22 June 1994)". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 140 (1): 116–121. JSTOR 987282. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)

External links

• IEEE History Center- IEEE minibio of Julius Stratton
• List of Founding Members of National Academy of Engineering
• Full text of the final Stratton Commission report, "Our Nation and the Sea"