Dugald Caleb Jackson (February 13, 1865 – July 1, 1951) was an American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. He received the IEEE Edison Medal for "outstanding and inspiring leadership in engineering education and in the field of generation and distribution of electric power".

Early life

Dugald was born into a

quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

family in Kennett Square,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. His parents were Josiah and Mary Price Jackson. His younger brother, John Price Jackson, co-wrote some books with him and also had a career as an electrical engineer, academic, civil servant and soldier. He attended The Hill School in Pottstown before studying

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

at Pennsylvania State College from which he graduated in 1885.

Early career

After two years teaching electrical engineering at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

he moved to the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

in 1891 as the first professor of Electrical Engineering, heading the Department of Electrical Engineering. He specialized in

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current that periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time, in contrast to direct current (DC), which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in w ...

s and associated machinery alongside technical issues involved in running central stations as independent power stations were known at the time.

At MIT

Jackson headed the Department of Electrical Engineering of the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) from 1907 to 1935. He was proponent of student and faculty involvement with industry. Jackson established research as a part of engineering education at MIT and coordinated it with practical experience in industrial settings (for example, with the General Electric Company), and his model spread widely. On April 3, 1911, Jackson participated in a conference at the Hotel Thorndike, in Boston encouraging closer co-operation between

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

manufacturers and central station managers in the Boston area. The conference was organized by the Boston Edison Company and Jackson promised the support of the Department of Electrical Engineering of the

(MIT) in providing scientific research to support the development of the electric vehicle industry. During his time at MIT, Jackson was elected to the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

in 1911 and the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1931.

Works

* 1893 ''Text Book on Electromagnetism and the Construction of Dynamos'' * 1895 ''Electricity and Magnetism'' * 1896 ''Alternating Currents and Alternating Current Machinery'' (with John Price Jackson) New York: Macmillan Co. * 1902 ''An Elementary Book on Electricity and Magnetism'' (with John Price Jackson) New York: Macmillan Co.

References

External links

Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Dugald C. IEEE Edison Medal recipients 1865 births 1951 deaths MIT School of Engineering faculty American electrical engineers Penn State College of Engineering alumni Cornell University College of Engineering alumni People from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania Engineers from Pennsylvania Members of the American Philosophical Society