History
Olin College is named for Franklin W. Olin (1860–1951), an
engineer, entrepreneur and professional baseball player. Although he lacked a
high school diploma, he qualified through self-study for entrance to Cornell
University, where he majored in civil engineering and was captain of the
baseball team. He played major league baseball during the summers to finance
his education. He went on to found the company known today as the Olin
Corporation, a Fortune 1000 company.
In 1938, Mr. Olin transferred a large part of his personal
wealth to a private philanthropic foundation. In two-thirds of a century of
existence, the F. W. Olin Foundation awarded grants totaling more than $800
million to construct and fully equip 78 buildings on 58 independent college
campuses. In 1997, the Foundation announced its intention to create Olin
College, its most ambitious project. In subsequent years, the Foundation
transferred its assets to the college, for a total commitment of $460 million,
one of the largest grants in the history of American higher education. The
Foundation’s generosity enabled Olin to start from a “clean slate” in designing
its academic program, and, in the philanthropic spirit of Franklin W. Olin, to
provide a tuition merit scholarship to every student. The faculty worked with
30 student “partners” in the year prior to the formal opening of the college to
design the curriculum. The college welcomed its first freshman class in August
2002.
In creating the college, the Foundation was responding to
calls for fundamental reform of engineering education from the National Science
Foundation, the National Academy of Engineering, the accrediting organizations
and the corporate community. To better prepare graduates for the challenges of
the twenty-first century, these groups recommended that engineering education
include more project-based learning, interdisciplinary teaching, and a greater
emphasis on entrepreneurship, teamwork and communication. Olin College
incorporated these suggestions, along with creative ideas of its own, into an
innovative, hands-on curriculum that is attracting worldwide attention as a new
model for engineering education.
Engineering education at Olin is in the liberal arts
tradition, with a strong emphasis on the arts, humanities, social sciences,
entrepreneurship, and design. Olin is committed to producing graduates who
recognize the complexity of the world, who appreciate the relationship of their
work to society and who are dedicated to creative enterprises for the good of
humankind.
Olin College graduated its first class in May 2006. Members
of that class and subsequent classes have gone on to graduate study and
employment at many of the nation’s top graduate schools and corporations. A
significant proportion of the graduates have started entrepreneurial ventures,
while others have sought alternative post-graduate occupations.
In 1999, Richard K. Miller was appointed President and first employee of Olin College of Engineering where he guided the College to being ranked among the top two undergraduate engineering schools in the country by US News & World Report. In 2013 Miller and two Olin Colleagues were recognized by the National Academy of Engineering with the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education.
The Gordon Prize is one of engineering’s highest honors, as it recognizes innovation in engineering and technical education. Miller also received the Brock International Prize in Education for his many contributions to the reinvention of engineering education in the 21st century.
He is also the co-founder of the Grand Challenge Scholars Program, an academic movement adopted internationally by nearly 100 universities to inspire young engineers to take the lead in addressing the Grand Challenges of the next century.
During the final ten years of his presidency more than 2,800 individual visitors representing more than 830 educational and other institutions from around the world had visited Olin for inspiration and guidance on how to spark change in their own institutions. Miller stepped down from his role at Olin on June 30, 2020, after 21 years leading the unique engineering college.
On July 1, 2020, Gilda A. Barabino became the second president of Olin College of Engineering, and Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering.
A biomedical engineer trained in chemical engineering, with broad interest in global health, systems, and interdisciplinary engineering education, Dr. Barabino is a noted investigator in the areas of sickle cell disease, cellular and tissue engineering. She is an internationally recognized thought leader and highly sought after speaker and consultant on race/ethnicity and gender in science and engineering, with particular focus on creating cultures and climates that support a sense of belonging. She has led a number of initiatives in these areas including serving as the founder and Executive Director of the National Institute for Faculty Equity.
Dr. Barabino is an active member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine and serves on numerous committees of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, including the Roundtable on Black Men and Black Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine; the Health and Medicine Division Committee; and the Committee on Women in Science Engineering and Medicine which she chairs.
The arrival of Olin’s next president offered an opportunity for the community to reflect on the accomplishments of the college’s first decade, to recommit to the founding values of innovation and collaboration, and to set an ambitious agenda for Olin’s future.
In 2021, Dr. Barabino shared a strategic vision for Olin College which included a focus on reducing inequity within and through engineering.