ASMEs First Female President Honored by Alma Mater

ASMEs First Female President Honored by Alma Mater ASMEs First Female President Honored by Alma Mater ASMEs First Female President Honored by Alma Mater(From left) Shirley Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, presents the universitys highest honor, the Davies Medal for Achievement, to ASME Honorary Member, Fellow and Past President nanzig Fitzroy. Photos courtesy of Rensselaer/Qua. Engineering trailblazer Nancy D. Fitzroy added another award to her extensive list of engineering accolades when she was presented with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institutes highest honor at a ceremony held at the university on May 5. More than 100 people attended the event, where RPI President Shirley A. Jackson presented Fitzroy with the Davies Medal for Achievement. Named in honor of Clarence E. Davies, one of RPIs most active and dedicated alumni, the award recognizes a Rensselaer graduate with a distinguished career of engineering achievement, public service, and technical and managerial accomplishments. Fitzroy, a world-renowned authority in heat transfer and fluid flow and one of the worlds first female helicopter pilots, became the first woman in the United States to lead a major professional engineering society when she was elected president of ASME for 1986-1987. She is also the first woman to receive Rensselaers Davies Medal. Nancy Fitzroy is a world-class engineer, a pioneer, and a spirited leader, Jackson said. Her technical contributions to the fields of heat transfer and fluid flow have been fundamental to a range of technologies, from satellites, to toasters, to nuclear reactor cores. Her leadership in engineering professional societies and commitment to inspiring the next generations of young people has helped strengthen engineering in the United States and around the world. Nancy Fitzroy (right), who served as ASME president in 1986-1987, discusses her experiences with Shirley Jackson, president of Rensselaer, during the Da vies Medal ceremony on May 5. After graduating from RPI in 1949 with a bachelors degree in chemical engineering, Fitzroy went on to work at General Electric from 1950 in a variety of engineering and managerial positions until her retirement in 1987. She specialized in heat transfer and fluid flow research, and was one of the first engineers to work on the design of heat transfer surfaces in nuclear reactor cores. Later in her career, Fitzroy conducted corporate research and development, with a focus on problems in the field of heat transfer in gas turbines, space satellites and other GE products. The author of more than 100 technical papers, she also holds three patents and is a registered professional engineer in the state of New York. After completing her term as president, Fitzroy continued to serve ASME in a number of roles, including director, vice chair and trustee of the ASME Foundation Board and trustee chair of the ASME Honors and Awards Committee and member of t he Board on Government Relations. Prior to becoming president, her ASME positions included member of the Board of Governors and senior vice president of the Council on Public Affairs. Fitzroy, an ASME Fellow, has been honored with of a number of Society awards, including Honorary Membership and the ASME Dedicated Service Award in 2008, and the ASME Centennial Medallion in 1980. In 2011, ASME established the Nancy DeLoye Fitzroy and Roland V. Fitzroy Medal, which recognizes pioneering contribution to the frontiers of engineering leading to a breakthrough in existing technology or leading to new applications or new areas of engineering endeavor. She currently serves as chair of the medals selection committee. The recipient of an honorary doctor of engineering and science degrees from Rensselaer and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, respectively, Fitzroy was designated an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1988, elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995, and inducted into the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame in 1999.