James Rhyne Killian

Killian was born on July 24, 1904, in Blacksburg, South Carolina. His father was a textile maker. He attended The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee{{Cite news |last=Pace |first=Eric |date=1988-01-31 |title=James Killian, 83, Science Adviser, Dies |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/31/obituaries/james-killian-83-science-adviser-dies.html |access-date=2024-02-21 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} later studied at Duke University (formerly Trinity University) for two years until he transferred to MIT, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration and engineering administration in 1926.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-01-31-mn-39551-story.html|title=Obituaries : James Killian; Educator, Adviser to Two Presidents|last=Stein|first=George|date=January 31, 1988|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=March 26, 2017}} While there, he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

In 1932, while serving as the editor of MIT's alumni magazine Technology Review, Killian was instrumental in the founding of Technology Press, the publishing imprint that would later become the institute's independent publishing house, MIT Press. He became executive assistant to MIT President Karl Taylor Compton in 1939, and co-directed the wartime operation of MIT, which strongly supported military research and development.

From 1948 until 1959, Killian was the 10th president of MIT. His administration encouraged the western expansion of campus, building Baker House, the Kresge Oval, and the Kresge Chapel, all significant modernist buildings. MIT's Sloan School of Management, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Lincoln Laboratory were established during his presidency.{{cite web |last1=Grey |first1=Paul E. |last2=Saxon |first2=David S. |title=Killian, James R., Jr. (1904-1988) |website=Harvard Square Library |url=https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/james-r-killian-jr-2/}}

In 1956, James R. Killian Jr was named as the 1st Chair to the new President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board by the Eisenhower Administration, a position which he held until April 1963.

Shortly after the October 1957 launches of the Soviet artificial satellites, Sputnik 1 and Sputnik 2, President Eisenhower asked Killian to serve as Special Assistant for Science and Technology, making him the first true Presidential Science Advisor.{{cite journal |last=Gray |first=Paul E. |title=

JAMES R. KILLIAN, JR. 1904-1988 |journal=National Academy of Engineering Tributes |volume=5 |url=https://www.nae.edu/188885/JAMES-R-KILLIAN-JR-19041988}} Killian took leave from MIT for two years to fill this new role. He headed the Killian Committee and oversaw the creation of the President's Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). PSAC was instrumental in initiating national curriculum reforms in science and technology and in establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Killian described an environment of "widespread discouragement" facing scientists and, in particular, scientists of the Technological Capabilities Panel, which had been convened by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to develop technological solutions to the perceived possibility of a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. This stifling work atmosphere was caused by the widely cast, groundless aspersions of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the removal of Robert Oppenheimer from work on sensitive military projects. Oppenheimer had expressed support for shifting U.S. military resources from offensive nuclear weapons to defensive capabilities, and following Oppenheimer's loss of his security clearance, scientists felt that it was inadvisable to challenge the thinking of the military establishment.Monte Reel, "A Brotherhood of Spies: The U2 and the CIA's Secret War," (New York: Anchor Books, 2019), pp. 28-29

In 1956 Killian was awarded the Public Welfare Medal from the National Academy of Sciences.{{cite web|title=Public Welfare Award |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=17 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101229180311/http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_pwm |archive-date=29 December 2010 }} He co-authored a memoir, The Education of a College President (1985),{{ISBN missing}}. After stepping down as president of MIT in 1959, he served as chairman of the MIT Corporation from 1959 until 1971.

Killian died on January 29, 1988, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Two locations on MIT's campus bear the name Killian: Killian Court, a tree-lined courtyard with views of MIT's Great Dome, and Killian Hall, a concert hall (actually named after Killian's wife, Elizabeth Parks Killian, a Wellesley College alumna).

• List of presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• List of institute professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• List of Mount Holyoke College people
• List of Sigma Chi members
• List of Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists
• List of Peabody Award winners (1960–1969)
• List of Peabody Award winners (1970–1979)

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book | author=Stever, H. Guyford | title=In War and Peace: My Life in Science and Technology | url=https://archive.org/details/inwarpeacemylife0000stev | url-access=registration | publisher=Joseph Henry Press | year=2002 | isbn=0-309-08411-3 | author-link=Guy Stever}}

• Killian, James Rhyne, [https://web.archive.org/web/20141003061248/http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/inaugurations/killian.html "The Obligations and Ideals of an Institute of Technology"], The Inaugural Address, Tenth President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, April 2, 1949
• [http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/mithistory/biographies/killian.html Official MIT biography]
• Welzenbach, Donald E., [http://cryptome.info/0001/cia-spy-tech/cia-spy-tech.htm "SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY: ORIGINS OF A DIRECTORATE"], March 15, 1953. Discussion of Killian's involvement with the C.I.A. and Pres. Eisenhower
• [http://eisenhower.archives.gov/Research/Finding_Aids/W.html Records of the White House Office of the Special Assistant for Science and Technology, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library]

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Category:1904 births

Category:1988 deaths

Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni

Category:MIT Sloan School of Management alumni

Category:Office of Science and Technology Policy officials

Category:Peabody Award winners

Category:Presidents of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Category:United States Army Science Board people

Category:American scientists

Category:Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni

Category:People from Blacksburg, South Carolina

Category:20th-century American academics