HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

Armstrong Family Endows Chair in Engineering, Sciences

The accomplishments of the faculty in the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS) are extraordinary by any standard. The large number of achievements æ recognized by Nobel and other major international prizes æ is especially impressive since fewer faculty members work in these areas at Harvard than at other major universities.

Thanks to John A. and Elizabeth S. Armstrong, alumni and longtime friends of Harvard and the DEAS who have just established a professorship of engineering and applied sciences, another scholar soon will be added to the Division.

"A gift from friends who know us so well is a double pleasure, and the establishment by John and Elizabeth Armstrong of a new chair in the Division is a marvelous statement of confidence in our future. At the start of the Campaign, we targeted the Division for significant growth, and I'm delighted that John and Elizabeth should thus be part of it!" said Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Jeremy R. Knowles.

"The Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences has thought long and hard about how to maximize its contributions given its small size, and I find that appealing," said John Armstrong, who served as chair of the Overseers' Visiting Committee to the DEAS from 1990 to 1996. "The role of the applied sciences and technology gets more and more important as time goes on, and it is not possible for Harvard to provide a well-rounded education without affording opportunities for young people to learn about applied (and natural) sciences and engineering. It would be difficult for the Division to continue to do justice to the breadth and depth of applied sciences without additional faculty, so Elizabeth and I decided to endow a chair. We hope that our gift may stimulate still other friends of the Division to help as well."

Armstrong also noted increasing student interest in the course offerings of the DEAS. The number of undergraduates concentrating in the sciences, especially in Computer Science, Engineering Science, and Environmental Science and Public Policy, has increased substantially over the past decade, according to Dean of the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences Paul C. Martin. "Student interests stem from their realization of the importance of science and technology for whatever career they choose," Martin said.

He continued: "Science and technology will play a more dominant role in the next century. We expect our programs in computer science and electrical engineering to have an impact on a par with the programs in materials and devices and in atmospheres and oceans that we built up over the past 40 years, and with our older programs in engineering, especially mechanical. We also intend to participate in the University-wide educational and research programs Harvard must develop to address complex problems involving information technology, energy and the environment, health, and manufacturing.

"As the world faces new problems, the Division must continue growing and moving in new directions," added Martin. "Generous support of our activities is always appreciated, but support from people like Elizabeth and John Armstrong, who are familiar in detail with what we are doing, is especially gratifying."

John Armstrong spent almost 10 years studying at Harvard, beginning as an undergraduate in 1952. A self-described "classic nerd" during high school days in his hometown of Schenectady, N.Y., Armstrong continued as a strong student at the College, concentrating in physics and graduating summa cum laude in 1956.

He won a Sheldon Traveling Fellowship that provided a year's worth of experiences abroad. In 1957, with a National Science Foundation fellowship, he commenced graduate work in experimental physics under Professor George B. Benedek. Armstrong earned a doctorate in three and a half years and then accepted a postdoctoral research fellowship, working with Professor Nicolaas Bloembergen in nonlinear optics.

Armstrong enthusiastically described the work that eventually won Bloembergen a Nobel Prize. "It was a very exciting business æ lasers. The optics is 'nonlinear' because laser light can be so intense as to change the properties of glass or crystals through which it passes. Since I spent my summers working in research labs for General Electric, Lincoln Labs, and the Bureau of Standards, I knew of the opportunities for scientists in industry," Armstrong said. So he joined IBM and enjoyed a 30-year career that culminated in his being named director of research and then vice president for science and technology.

Armstrong was noted for being the first researcher to measure picosecond laser pulse widths (a picosecond is one millionth of one millionth of a second), and the first to use the picosecond pulse-probe technique to measure fast relaxation phenomena. He is the author or coauthor of more than 60 papers on nuclear resonance, nonlinear optics, photon statistics of lasers, management of research in industry, and science and technology policy issues.

Since his retirement in 1993, Armstrong has led a life he describes as that of an "itinerant scholar," with periods spent as visiting lecturer at M.I.T., visiting professor at the University of Virginia, and, near his new home in Amherst, Mass., as adjunct professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Massachusetts, where he enjoys counseling young scientists about their careers.

Armstrong is also a presidentially appointed member of the National Science Board (the board of directors of the National Science Foundation), a member and Councillor of the National Academy of Engineering, and chair-elect of the Governing Board of the American Institute of Physics. "I believe in the importance of engineering and applied sciences both for their contributions to society and as subjects about which educated people ought to know something," Armstrong concluded. "I am grateful to Harvard and very deeply impressed by the achievements of its faculty. I know the strengths of the DEAS and I know where it wants to build. Elizabeth and I are happy to have the chance to support the sciences at Harvard."

"Establishing a professorship is an investment in people," said Elizabeth Armstrong, who received an A.B. in mathematics from Radcliffe College in 1958. "People have an infinite potential for creativity, and while one cannot always predict success, this chair seems a very good bet for producing new, useful knowledge."

The Armstrongs have two children. Sarah R. Armstrong '81, who received a master of science degree in health policy and management from the School of Public Health and a master's in molecular biology from Stanford, works as an environmental consultant in Cambridge. Jennifer M. Armstrong, Smith College '83, lives in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and is a frequently published author of young-adult literature.