SWE - Spring 2008 - (Page 22) Eleanor Baum — Eleanor Baum, Ph.D., dean of engineering at The Cooper Union and executive director of the Cooper Union Research Foundation, was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in October 2007. Dr. Baum is a Fellow of SWE and a recipient of the Society’s Upward Mobility Award. SWE Members in the National Women’s Hall of Fame Dr. Eleanor Baum joins four other remarkable SWE members — past and present — whose lives and accomplishments are honored in the National Women’s Hall of Fame. Lillian Moller Gilbreth, Ph.D. (18781972), was an author, inventor, and industrial engineer. She also is regarded as the first true industrial/organizational psychologist. Widely heralded as the “First Lady of Engineering,” Dr. Gilbreth was a pioneer in industrial engineering. Through timemotion studies, she and her husband, Frank, developed techniques to increase efficiency in the workplace. While she was concerned with the technical aspects of productivity, it was the human side of time management she found most intriguing. Dr. Gilbreth was among the first to recognize the negative effects of fatigue and stress on productivity and employee job satisfaction. After her husband’s death, Dr. Gilbreth continued her work but switched her focus to household workers. She was devoted to increasing the efficiency of kitchen appliances. As an industrial engineer for General Electric, she interviewed more than 4,000 women in her efforts to design ergonomically efficient sinks, stoves, and other household fixtures. She patented a number of kitchen appliances, including an electric food mixer and the foot-pedal trash can. Dr. Gilbreth’s concern for household workers extended to the handicapped, and she designed techniques and kitchen layouts to help disabled people perform common household tasks. The first female engineering professor at Purdue University, she joined the faculty in 1935. Other firsts include induction as the first woman member of the National Academy of Engineering, in 1965, and the first woman to receive the Hoover Medal. She was an advisor to every United States president from Herbert Hoover to Lyndon Johnson. Dr. Gilbreth graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in literature. She earned a Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University. In 1926, she became the first woman member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The Gilbreths were the parents of 12 children. Two of their children, Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, wrote the well-known books Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on Their Toes. The books, which evolved into feature movies, chronicled life growing up in the Gilbreth household. A permanent exhibit in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History features a 1930s refrigerator designed by Dr. Gilbreth, and her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery. She was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995. 22 SWE SPRING 2008
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