Dr. David P. Billington is Gordon Y.S. Wu Professor of Civil Engineering at Princeton University. During 2004 and 2005, Dr. Billington will improve and expand instructional materials that would allow faculty at other institutions to adapt his highly acclaimed introductory engineering course "Engineering in the Modern World." The course places engineering in a historical context and presents it in a captivating and compelling manner. The version of the class currently offered at Princeton satisfies university-wide requirements both in history and in science or technology. Along with another similar course Billington teaches, these courses have in recent years enrolled about 40 percent of the non-science liberal arts majors at Princeton and significantly advanced the general student body's understanding of engineering.
Billington is the author of more than 160 journal articles and eight books, including the 1996 volume The Innovators: The Engineering Pioneers Who Made America Modern. His research interests include thin-shell concrete structures, the history of technology, and scholarship for introductory courses in engineering.