Oliver R. Smoot | |
---|---|
Born | Bexar County, Texas, U.S. | August 24, 1940
Nationality | American |
Education | BS, Economics, Political Science, and Mathematics (1962) |
Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Occupation(s) | Expert witness, retired |
Known for | Unit of measurement known as a smoot |
Height | 5 ft 5.75 in (1.6701 m) (0.9813139 smoot) |
Oliver Reed Smoot, Jr. (born August 24, 1940) is an MIT alumnus who was chairman of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) from 2001 to 2002 and president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) from 2003 to 2004. [1] [2] [3]
In 2011, American Heritage Dictionary admitted his decapitalized surname, smoot, meaning a distance of 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m), as one of the 10,000 new words added to their fifth edition. The term is named for Smoot from his undergraduate days when he was used as a unit of measurement on the Harvard Bridge at MIT during a fraternity pledge activity. [4] [5]
Smoot was born August 24, 1940, in Bexar County, Texas. He attended MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and obtained a Bachelor of Science in 1962. He then attended Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., where he obtained his JD.
From 2000–2005, he served as vice president for external voluntary standards relations of the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI). Prior to that, he was ITI's executive vice president for 23 years. [6]
Smoot gave a speech to a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's Subcommittee on Technology on March 20, 2000, titled "The Role of Technical Standards in Today's Society and in the Future".
He returned to MIT on October 4, 2008, for a 50th anniversary celebration, [7] including the installation of a plaque on the bridge. Smoot was also presented with an official unit of measurement: a smoot stick. [8] On May 7, 2016, he served as the grand marshal of the parade marking the centenary of MIT's moving from Boston's Back Bay into Cambridge. [9] [10]
Smoot lives in San Diego with his spouse Sandra Smoot. He is also a representative of the MIT Education Council. He has two sons, both of whom also attended MIT. [11]
Smoot is a distant relative of Senator Reed Smoot. [12]
Harold Eugene "Doc" Edgerton, also known as Papa Flash, was an American scientist and researcher, a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is largely credited with transforming the stroboscope from an obscure laboratory instrument into a common device. He also was deeply involved with the development of sonar and deep-sea photography, and his equipment was used in collaboration with Jacques Cousteau in searches for shipwrecks and even the Loch Ness Monster.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science.
The Harvard Bridge is a steel haunched girder bridge carrying Massachusetts Avenue over the Charles River and connecting Back Bay, Boston with Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the longest bridge over the Charles River at 2,164.8 feet.
The smoot is a nonstandard, humorous unit of length created as part of an MIT fraternity pledge to Lambda Chi Alpha by Oliver R. Smoot, who in October 1958 lay down repeatedly on the Harvard Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, so that his fraternity brothers could use his height to measure the length of the bridge.
The Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) is a student organization at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Historically it has been a wellspring of hacker culture and the oldest such hacking group in North America. Formed in 1946, its HO scale layout specializes in automated operation of model trains.
Rainer "Rai" Weiss is a German-born American physicist, known for his contributions in gravitational physics and astrophysics. He is a professor of physics emeritus at MIT and an adjunct professor at LSU. He is best known for inventing the laser interferometric technique which is the basic operation of LIGO. He was Chair of the COBE Science Working Group.
William Barton Rogers was an American geologist, physicist, and educator at the College of William & Mary from 1828 to 1835 and at the University of Virginia from 1835 to 1853. In 1861, Rogers founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The university opened in 1865 after the American Civil War. Because of his affiliation with Virginia, Mount Rogers, the highest peak in the state, is named after him.
Lambda Chi Alpha (ΛΧΑ), commonly known as Lambda, is a college fraternity in North America. It was founded at Boston University in 1909. Lambda Chi Alpha is one of the largest social fraternities in North America with over 300,000 lifetime members and active chapters and colonies at 195 universities.
Samuel Wright Bodman III was an American businessman, engineer, and politician who served as the 11th United States Secretary of Energy during the George W. Bush administration, from 2005 to 2009. He was also, at different times, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury and the Deputy Secretary of Commerce.
A smoot is a jocular unit of measurement equal to 5 feet 7 inches (1.702 m).
Irwin Mark Jacobs is an American electrical engineer and businessman. He is a co-founder and former chairman of Qualcomm, and chair of the board of trustees of the Salk Institute. As of 2019, Jacobs has an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion.
George Fitzgerald Smoot III is an American astrophysicist, cosmologist, Nobel laureate, and the second contestant to win the $1 million prize on Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?. He won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic Background Explorer with John C. Mather that led to the "discovery of the black body form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation".
Gaylord Probasco Harnwell CBE was an American educator and physicist, who was president of the University of Pennsylvania from 1953 to 1970. He also held a great number of positions in a wide variety of national political and educational boards and committees, as well as senior positions in both the Office of the Governor of Pennsylvania and the United States Navy. In the later part of his life he also toured both the Soviet Union and Iran as a promoter of higher education.
Cyril Manton Harris was Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Charles Batchelor Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. He received his B.S. in mathematics and his M.S. in physics from UCLA, and his Ph.D. in physics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he specialized in acoustics.
Vera Kistiakowsky was an American research physicist, teacher, and arms control activist. She was professor emerita at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the physics department and Laboratory for Nuclear Science, and was an activist for women's participation in the sciences. Kistiakowsky was an expert in experimental particle physics and observational astrophysics. Her hobbies included climbing mountains, and she liked to maintain an energetic and fit lifestyle. She was the first woman appointed MIT professor of physics in 1972.
Geeks & Greeks is a semi-autobiographical graphic novel written by humorist Steve Altes, illustrated by Andy Fish, and colored by Veronica Fish. It includes a foreword by novelist Matthew Pearl and is dedicated to Sean Collier. Geeks & Greeks is set at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and locations in Boston, Cambridge, and the Quincy Quarries. The story was inspired by MIT's hacking culture and the writer's experiences with fraternity hazing. At MIT a hack is a clever, benign prank or unsanctioned public display or installation that requires technical sophistication to execute and often incorporates an offbeat sense of humor. Geeks & Greeks has been described as Good Will Hunting meets Animal House.
John Paul Eberhard FAIA was an American research architect and academic. He was the 2003 recipient of the Latrobe Prize.
Jacob Daniel Auchincloss is an American politician, businessman, and Marine veteran serving as the U.S. representative for Massachusetts's 4th congressional district since 2021. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Statement of Oliver R. Smoot Acting Chairman, American National Standards Institute
Smoot makes his mark in standards and measurements