Century of light

Friday, November 1, 2024

Dedicated students, distinguished colleagues and dear friends,

Happy Friday!

First, a little cool history. One hundred thirty-two years ago, in 1892, our first Japanese student, Zentaro Iijima, enrolled in our university, then named the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (MSM) to become an electrical engineer. He took courses in electrical engineering from Professor Austin McRae who came to MSM from Harvard to teach physics, but he had studied electrical engineering at Harvard and began offering courses in electricity. 

You see, although the first course in electricity was officially offered in 1891 at our university, there is evidence of instruction in electricity as early as 1876 when Professor Charles Williams demonstrated an electric arc lamp on campus. According to alumnus Amand Ravold, Williams "and his assistant set up a battery of electric cells, some 20 or more in number." "An electric cell consisted of zinc and carbon elements immersed in a solution of sodium bichromate dissolved in dilute sulfuric acid. The cells were connected and the current generated was allowed to flow through the carbons of the lamp, which produced a brilliant light."

From this modest beginning, MSM continued its effort to establish the university as a destination of choice for students interested in electricity and its applications. A two-year program in “practical electrical engineering” soon followed, and, in 1915, the Buford Act, introduced by State Senator Carter Buford, permitted MSM to offer degrees in chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering. In 1924, the electrical engineering department was formed and by 1936, the school had granted 100 degrees in electrical engineering.

Our Academy of Electrical Engineering was formed in 1980, and in 1998 the department became electrical and computer engineering. The academy followed suit and added computer engineering to its name. Today, S&T has more than 11,000 alumni with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering and nearly 1,500 alumni with bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in computer engineering. And our Academy of Electrical and Computer Engineering has more than 200 inductees – alumni of distinction who have been contributing to a century of light.

What about Zentaro lijima? Well, having become fascinated with electrical engineering, lijima formed and became a charter member of the MSM Electrical Club and made a presentation to members on a “System of Wiring for Electric Lighting.” He believed Rolla needed an electric light plant and developed and proposed a plan for construction of a “power and light plant” to the Rolla city council, including construction and operation costs and an estimate of annual earnings. Although the Rolla Herald endorsed his proposal, city leaders rejected it. Iijima returned to Japan and became one of that nation’s leading electrical engineers, but he never forgot his experiences at MSM and the “kindness shown” him by Rolla citizens.

A promotional piece that MSM placed in the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 1916 noted that he had “designed and built” a “wireless apparatus used by the Japanese Navy.” In 1919, Iijima wrote to the Rolla Herald newspaper explaining that he headed a transformer manufacturing firm in Tokyo and four years later, in a 1923 Alumni Directory, he was still associated with the Tokyo firm.

Happy centennial to our electrical engineering program, to Zentaro lijima and all our men and women of the century whose footsteps became our well-paved road. In the simple and eloquent words of Spanish poet Antonio Machado: “your footsteps are (our) road, … by walking (you) made the road.” Please know that your inspiration has become our aspiration as we are grateful for a century of light.

Warmly,

-Mo.

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Mohammad Dehghani, PhD
Chancellor
mo@mst.edu | 573-341-4116

206 Parker Hall, 300 West 13th Street, Rolla, MO 65409-0910
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