Richard Söderberg

Carl Richard Soderberg
Born	(1895-02-03)February 3, 1895 Ulvöhamn, Sweden
Died	October 17, 1979(1979-10-17) (aged 84) Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Citizenship	U.S., Swedish
Alma mater	Chalmers University of Technology MIT
Known for	power engineering
Scientific career
Fields	Engineering
Institutions	MIT

Carl Richard (Dick) Soderberg (February 3, 1895 - October 17, 1979) was a power engineer and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Background

Soderberg was born in the fishing village of Ulvöhamn, in Örnsköldsvik Municipality, Västernorrland County, Sweden. He enrolled at the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Göteborg. In 1919 he graduated with a degree in naval architecture. On a fellowship from The American-Scandinavian Foundation, Soderberg came to MIT, where he was awarded the degree of bachelor of science in June 1920.

Career

In 1922, Soderberg started at the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company. In 1928, Soderberg accepted an offer from ASEA to return to Sweden and head the development of a new line of large turbogenerators. In 1930, he returned to Westinghouse, where he was assigned to the Power Engineering Department.

In 1938, Soderberg was offered a faculty appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. In 1954 Soderberg was appointed dean of the School of Engineering. He resigned as dean in 1959 and was appointed to the position of Institute Professor. Soderberg had a total of eighteen U.S. patents issued in the years from 1935 to 1950, all relating to constructional features of turbines.

Soderberg was a member of many professional societies. He was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1947 and to the National Academy of Engineering in 1974. He was also a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. In 1958 he was made a knight of the Order of the Polar Star by the King of Sweden and in 1968 a commander of the Royal Order of the North Star.

On the occasion of Soderberg’s eightieth birthday in 1975, MIT announced the establishment of the Carl Richard Soderberg Professorship of Power Engineering.

Selected works

• The Mechanical Engineering Department (Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 1947)
• My Life (Public Relations Group. 1979)

References

• Ascher H. Shapiro. "Carl Richard Soderberg (1895-1979)". National Academies Press. Retrieved 2007-04-22.

Other sources

• Benson, Adolph B. and Naboth Hedin, eds. (1938) Swedes in America, 1638-1938 (The Swedish American Tercentenary Association. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press) ISBN 978-0-8383-0326-9