Our History: Roots of Greatness
NYU Tandon's long history of world-changing engineering
The NYU Tandon School of Engineering, which traces its origins back to 1854, is the product of a union between two strong traditions. We are the result of merging a world-class research university in and of the city with an engineering school dedicated to the premise that you can be born anywhere but made right here in Brooklyn.
At NYU Tandon students of every stripe can set forth on their journeys to gratifying careers, entrepreneurial success, and technological innovation — and, just as important, to self-discovery. Our alumni have gone on to found companies, traveled beyond Earth’s limits, attained boardroom success, and reached the pinnacle of their academic fields.
They share our core belief as an institution: that harnessing the power of science and technology will lead to a more equitable society and a greener, safer, better-connected world.
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Polytechnic University
Changing the World: The First 150 Years
by Jeffery L. Rodengen
The 19th Century
1854
The Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute is founded, as well as the NYU School of Civil Engineering and Architecture.
1879
Robert G. Brown (1868) revolutionized communication by combining the receiver and mouthpiece of the phone.
1883
James J. Wood (1879) was responsible for the machinery that produced the distinctive cables of the Brooklyn Bridge. Arthur V. Abbott (1875) invented the coupling system for the bridge’s cables and a testing machine for the materials used in the construction.
1889
Renamed the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn.
1890's
The U.S. Navy began using searchlights developed by Edward R. Knowles (1870).
The 20th Century
1907
The first woman, Anna Erdmann, received a Bachelor's degree from Polytechnic.
1911
Charles R. Flint (1868) formed the Computing-Tabulating- Recording Company, which was later renamed IBM.
1914
Henry C. Goldmark (1874) coengineered the Panama Canal locks. He was later awarded a medal of honor by President Howard Taft for his crucial contribution to the project.
1942
Herman F. Mark, generally known as the Father of Polymer Science, joined the faculty and established the Polymer Research Institute.
1943
Pfizer began using a process developed by Jasper H. Kane (’28) that allowed for the mass production of penicillin.
1945
Professor and President Ernst Weber (‘58-’69) founded the Microwave Research Institute which developed electromagnetic and microwave defense and communication systems.
1950
William B. Kouwenhoven (’06, ’07) developed the first closed-chest cardiac defibrillator. He is also credited with discovering the efficacy of cardiac massage, the technique that would become a key to CPR.
1957
Eugene Kleiner (’48) helped found Fairchild Semiconductor, a pioneer in transistor and integrated-circuit manufacturing. Kleiner later co-founded a venture capital firm that provided funding for such now-iconic companies as Amazon, Google and AOL.
1958
The school officially becomes coed (although many women had attended and graduated during World War II).
1961
Thomas Joseph Kelly (’58) led the team that designed and tested NASA’s first Lunar Module used for the Apollo 11 mission.
1962
Francis Crick (Postdoctoral fellow with the Protein Structure Project during the ’53-’54 academic year) won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of DNA structure.
1967
Joseph L. Owades (’44, ’50) hit upon the formula for making the world’s first light beer.
1969
After Apollo 11 carried Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, to the Moon, Jay Greene (‘64) manned the Flight Dynamics Console during the descent phase.
1970
Handheld laser barcode scanner invented by Jerome Swartz ‘63, ‘68 and Shelley Harrison ‘66, ‘71.
1973
Renamed Polytechnic Institute of New York after encompassing the faculty, programs, and students of New York University College of Engineering.
1978
Intel’s 8086 chip was introduced; its chief architect was Stephen Morse (’63).
1984
Eleanor Baum (’64) became the first female dean of an engineering school in the United States, at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and 1995 first woman president for American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE).
1985
Renamed Polytechnic University
1992
Former professor Rudolph Marcus won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems.
1995
Martin L. Perl (’48) won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his pioneering experimental contributions to lepton physics.
1996
Charles Camarda (‘74) was chosen as an astronaut candidate by NASA and ultimately logged over 333 hours in space.
The 21st Century
2003
The American Chemical Society designated the Polymer Research Institute as a National Historic Chemical Landmark
2006
Professor David Goodman is elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to wireless communications and digital signal processing.
2007
Paolo Angelo Nespoli (’88, ‘89) traveled aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery as a mission specialist.
2008
An affiliation is forged between Polytechnic and New York University, creating the Polytechnic Institute of NYU and paving the way for an official merger.
2009
Ursula Burns (’80) was appointed CEO of Xerox, becoming the first African-American woman ever to head a Fortune 500 company.
2011
Judea Pearl ('65) garnered the A. M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery for his fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence.
2013
Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Ted Rappaport publishes his seminal paper “Millimeter Wave Mobile Communications for 5G Cellular: It Will Work,” paving the way for next-generation mobile communication.
2013
Noted physicist Katepalli Sreenivasan becomes the dean of the school.
2014
Merger with New York University becomes official — name changes to the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering.
2015
Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon generously donate $100 million and the school is renamed NYU Tandon School of Engineering in recognition of the Tandons’ generosity and their belief in the school’s mission and promise.
2016
CSAW, the world’s biggest student-run cybersecurity event, becomes international with competitions in India, the Middle East and North Africa.
2018
NYU Tandon's Future Labs (a network of startup business hubs) reports an estimated economic impact on New York City’s economy of $4.06 billion since launching in 2009.
2018
Jelena Kovačević became the Dean of the NYU Tandon School of Engineering. She is the first woman to head the school since its founding.
2020
Professor Thomas Marzetta is elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to multiple antenna arrays in wireless communications.
2021
Professor Ted Rappaport, wireless telecommunications pioneer and founder of NYU WIRELESS, is elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
2021
Professor Zhong-Ping Jiang is elected as a foreign member of Academia Europaea's Section on Electrical and Computer Engineering.
2022
NYU Tandon rose to #33 in U.S. News & World Report rankings of best U.S. engineering schools, representing a 49-position leap from 2006, when it was ranked at 82.
2022
NYU invests $1 billion in Tandon, including the purchase of 3 MetroTech Center.
2022
Professor Shivendra Panwar named a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
2023
Professor Elisa Riedo is elected as a foreign member of Academia Europaea's Section on Physics and Engineering Sciences.