The Institute Archives and Special Collections is pleased to announce the addition of a new collection – the papers of Jordan J. Baruch. Baruch was an alumnus of MIT, having received both his SB and SM in Electrical Engineering through the Co-operative Course VI-A program in 1948, and his Sc.D. in Electrical Engineering in 1950. He was also an assistant professor in the Electrical Engineering department from 1950-1972. In addition to MIT, Baruch taught at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Johns Hopkins. As well as being an educator, Baruch was an expert in acoustics, an inventor, and a businessman. He was integral in the founding of several Boston-area companies including Boston Broadcasters, Inc. (Channel 5), and Bolt Beranek and Newman, in addition to running his own consulting firms. In 1977 Baruch was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce by President Jimmy Carter, serving as Assistant Secretary for Science and Technology. During this tenure, Baruch initiated the founding of the first school of management in China, which helped establish business ties between China and the United States. He was also a decorated veteran of World War Two.

The Jordan J. Baruch papers include correspondence, research, publications, photographs, testimonies before the Senate and the House regarding science and technology policies, and documents relating to his work in China. The Baruch papers are currently being processed with support from donor funding and will be available to researchers once processing is complete.

For more information, please contact Dana Hamlin, Project Archivist, at dgoblask@mit.edu or 617-253-5705.