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History of the department

The name of the department was initially the Department of Thermal Sciences.

Thomas Irvine arrived at the start of the Spring 1961 Semester as Dean of Engineering.

In the late summer of 1961, the following  Department of Thermal Sciences faculty arrived at the temporary campus in Oyster Bay:

 
  • Walter Bradfield, Professor and Chair
  • William Snyder, Associate Professor
  • Robert Cess, Associate Professor
  • Edward O'Brien, Assistant Professor

In the summer of 1962, we moved to the new campus in Stony Brook.  Although a Department of Solid Mechanics had been planned, at that time it was decided to combine Solid Mechanics with Thermal Sciences, with this combined department being the Department of Mechanics, later to become the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

​The Department Chairmen during the Department of Mechanics and later of the Department of Mechanical Engineering were the following:

  • Abraham L. Berlad
  • Richard S. Lee
  • Stewart Harris
  • Edward E. O'Brien
  • Alan Kushner
  • James Tasi
  • Fu-Pen Chiang
  • Qiaode Jeffrey Ge
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