Otto Mayr (born November 2, 1930) is a German

mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

, historian of technology, curator, author and former director of the

National Museum of History and Technology The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and military history. Among the items on display is t ...

in Washington DC and the

Deutsches Museum The Deutsches Museum (''German Museum'', officially (English: ''German Museum of Masterpieces of Science and Technology'')) in Munich, Germany, is the world's largest museum of science and technology, with about 28,000 exhibited objects from ...

in Munich. He is particularly known for his work on "The origins of feedback control" and "Authority, liberty, & automatic machinery in early modern Europe."Kurzweil, Ray. ''The age of spiritual machines: When computers exceed human intelligence.'' Penguin, 2000.

Early life and education

Mayr was born in Essen as son of Otto Mayr and Dorothea (Grunau) Mayr. He obtained his engineering diploma in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

from the

Technical University of Munich The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establis ...

in 1956.Horst Kliemann, John C. Dove. ''Who's who in Germany ''. Vol. 1, 1992. p. 1192.

Career

After his graduation in 1956 he had started his career as research assistant at the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Heat Power Laboratory for a year. From 1957 to 1960 he worked at the Swiss industrial engineering and manufacturing firm Sulzer Ltd. In 1960, Mayr returned to the US, where he worked another two years at the Control Instruments Division of Taylor Instruments Companies in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

. From 1962 to 1965 he was lecturer and later assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

. In 1964 he obtained his Master of Science at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

. From 1965 to 1968, he returned to Munich, Germany, where he was appointed research assistant at the

at its research institute for science and technology history. In 1968 he obtained his PhD from the

for a thesis about the early history of technical regulations. After his graduation in 1968, Mayr returned to the United States, where he was appointed curator at the

of the Smithsonian Institution, and chairman of the Department of History of Science and Technology. In 1983, he returned to Munich to become general director of the

, where he served until his retirement in 1992.

Awards

In 1988, Mayr was awarded the first-class merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 1992 he received the

Leonardo da Vinci Medal The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest award of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and was first given in 1962. In general this award is granted annually to scholars who have contributed outstandingly to the history of technology ...

from the

Society for the History of Technology The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) is the primary professional society for historians of technology. SHOT was founded in 1958 in the United States, and it has since become an international society with members "from some thirty-five ...

(SHOT).

Selected publications

* Otto Mayr (Editor) ''Philosophers and Machines'', 1975, * Otto Mayr, et al. (eds.), ''Yankee Enterprise: The Rise of the American System of Manufactures,'' 1981. * Mayr, Otto. ''Authority, liberty, & automatic machinery in early modern Europe.'' No. 8. Johns Hopkins Univ Pr, 1986. **(''Uhrwerk und Waage: Autorität, Freiheit und technische Systeme in der frühen Neuzeit.'' translated into German by Friedrich Griese, Beck, München, 1987) ;Articles, a selection * Mayr, Otto. "The origins of feedback control." ''Scientific American'' 223.4 (1970): 110–119. * Mayr, Otto. "Adam Smith and the concept of the feedback system: Economic thought and technology in 18th-century Britain." ''Technology and culture'' (1971): 1-22. (Explanation of simultaneous emergence of feedback systems in technology and economic thought in 18th century Britain) * Mayr, Otto. "Maxwell and the origins of cybernetics." ''Isis'' 62.4 (1971): 425–444. * Mayr, Otto. "The science-technology relationship as a historiographic problem." ''Technology and Culture'' 17.4 (1976): 663–673.

References

External links

Dr. Otto - Deutsches Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayr, Otto 1930 births Living people German mechanical engineers 20th-century German historians Historians of technology Technical University of Munich alumni University of Rochester alumni Writers from Essen Leonardo da Vinci Medal recipients Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Engineers from Essen German curators