Article 2: Robert Henry Thurston: Professionalism and Engineering Education

Robert Henry Thurston provides one the most significant examples of professionalizing engineering through innovative education and promoting scientific education practices in the late nineteenth century. The son of a draftsmen and steam engine mechanic, Thurston spent his early years in Providence, Rhode Island. His family assumed he would become an apprentice in the steam engine compa ny his father acquired in 1838. A high school science teacher encouraged him to apply to Brown University, where he began his freshmen year in 1856, at the age of sixteen. After encountering quite disappointing experiences in his mathematics and science courses while at Brown, Thurston focused his professional career on advancing and professionalizing engineering and engineering education the rest of his life.