The only Miner to ever pitch in a World Series game, Marvin H. “Baby Face” Breuer pitched for the New York Yankees from 1939 to 1943. The 1935 civil engineering graduate, Breuer took the mound in the first “Subway Series” between the Yankees and their crosstown rival Brooklyn Dodgers in 1941, throwing three scoreless innings…
The original Yankee Stadium, completed in 1923, came to be known as “The House That Ruth Built,” in recognition of baseball slugger Babe Ruth, who played for the New York Yankees during that era. The second version of that stadium in the Bronx might well be known as “The House That Lancey Built.” Michael Lancey,…
Two alumni have worked their way into the Olympics through hard work and determination. Tyrone Smith and Shawn Wallace both competed at the latest Summer Olympics in 2016 and showcased Miner grit. Smith, a 2007 S&T graduate in history, has competed three times at the Summer Olympics – in 2008, 2012 and 2016. The Bermudian…
In the 1950s, AT&T Bell Labs was a hotbed of innovation, a place where engineers and theorists came together to invent the transistor and make major contributions to the field of lasers and cell phones. One reason: the leadership of Bell Labs’ research director Mervin Kelly, a 1914 physics graduate. Kelly “hired the best researchers…
When Lelia Thompson Flagg, a 1960 graduate in civil engineering, arrived at Missouri S&T for the first time, there were no dorms for her to stay in. Instead, she stayed with a Black family south of campus while earning her degree. Flagg was the first Black woman to graduate from Missouri S&T and was one…
In 1967, Farouk El-Baz, was appointed by NASA as secretary of lunar landing site selection and chairman of astronaut training in orbital observations and photography. He helped NASA officials determine where the Eagle would land on the moon in 1969. El-Baz’s role was chronicled by Tom Hanks in the TV series From the Earth to…
Col. Thomas Akers, Math’73, MS Math’75, has logged more than 800 hours of space flight and 29 hours of space-walking experience. He was selected for NASA’s astronaut program after joining the Air Force and was a mission specialist on four space flights – including on the Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis. Following his career in the…
In 1999, the Missouri S&T Solar Car Team took first place in Sunrayce, now known as the American Solar Challenge. The course started in Washington, D.C., and ended in Orlando, Florida, and stands out in the record books due to the lack of sunshine. Solar Miner II completed the race in just over 56 hours…
Janet Kavandi, former deputy director at NASA’s Glenn Research Center and a NASA astronaut, has logged more than 33 days in space, traveling more than 13.1 million miles in 535 Earth orbits. Kavandi, who earned a master’s degree in chemistry from S&T in1982, was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame as a part…
An expert in developing specialty glasses for use in health care, transportation infrastructure and other applications, Delbert Day is known for co-inventing radioactive glass microspheres. Now marketed as TheraSphere, Day’s product is used at over 200 sites worldwide to treat patients with inoperable liver cancer. Work by Day and other Missouri S&T researchers has led…