Dartmouth's Engineering School Receives $25 Million to Expand

Barry MacLean, chairman and CEO of manufacturing company MacLean-Fogg in Illinois, donated $25 million to the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College in Hanover. MacLean’s donation, the largest received by Thayer, is being split between two projects: $15 million will fund the design and construction of a new engineering building, while a $10 million matching grant will help create endowed professorships.

“I believe deeply in the school’s mission and how the skills gained at Thayer can help prepare all students for their lives,” says MacLean, a Dartmouth alumnus and former member of the college’s board of trustees and Thayer’s board of overseers. “I firmly believe every Dartmouth undergraduate should experience Thayer.”

Thayer is seeking to raise an estimated $200 million in private donations fto expand the school. MacLean, chair of the fundraising effort, is working in partnership with Terry Maguire, chair of the Thayer board of overseers, and a committee of volunteers. 

A main driver of the expansion plan is the increasing student demand at Thayer. Engineering AB majors and BE graduates have almost doubled in the last 15 years. This year’s graduating class of approximately 110 engineering majors is the largest in Thayer’s history.

Part of these plans is the construction of a new 180,000-sqaure-foot building, which will nearly double the school’s total floor space. Funded by MacLean’s donation, the building will provide more space for classroom teaching, and will support plans to significantly increase the number of faculty. 

The college is planning to hire faculty who have started successful companies based on their research. One-third of Thayer faculty members have established start-ups, and the school is aiming to increase faculty entrepreneurship to 50 percent.

Additionally, the building will be used to expand experiential learning and entrepreneurship for both graduate and undergraduate students, with an emphasis on design and research in energy technology and engineering-in-medicine. 

In energy, Thayer would focus on an integrated approach to global energy challenges, with specific concentrations in materials, power electronics, biomass energy and energy systems. In the medical field, the school would build on existing strengths in imaging, in partnership with the College’s Geisel School of Medicine, as well as in biomolecular medicine, immune-engineering and more.

Joseph Helble, dean of Thayer and a professor of engineering, says the expansion will generate more research opportunities for students and allow the School to compete for larger research grants.