Three Innovators Retire

JOHN P. COLLIER

JOHN P. COLLIER ’72 Th’73 Th’75 Th’77, the “father” of Thayer’s signature ENGS 21: Introduction to Engineering course and a beloved faculty for more than 40 years, retired in June. Collier joined the engineering faculty in 1979 and has been pivotal in transforming Thayer’s approach to education and research. A design engineer whose work also focused on biomechanics and biomedical materials, Collier cofounded the Orthopedic Device Retrieval Program at Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center (DBEC) with orthopedic surgeon Dr. Michael Mayor. There he grew and oversaw one of the largest collections of retrieved joint implants in the world—now more than 15,000—and helped identify and solve problems related to the production, design, and materials of joint replacement technology. Throughout his career, he has won numerous accolades, including NH Professor of the Year in 2010, and one of the National Academy of Engineering’s highest honors—the Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education.

ALEXANDER HARTOV

ALEXANDER HARTOV Th’88 Th’91, who combined his biomedical imaging and instrumentation research with a dedication to student mentoring and teaching, will retire in June. Hartov joined the faculty in 1996 and has taught courses in instrumentation and measurement, electrical network theory, and digital image processing. He also served as director of Thayer’s MS and PhD programs. Hartov’s work focused on imaging for breast cancer and prostate cancer screening, image-guided and fluorescence-guided neurosurgery, and automated segmentation. For more than a decade, he also served as a lead investigator in numerous projects for the Brain Research Group at Dartmouth, a multidisciplinary group of faculty, physicians, and researchers from Thayer, Geisel School of Medicine, and DHMC that develops neurosurgery technologies. With Dartmouth Jewish Studies Professor Lewis Glinert, Hartov also helped launch the Dartmouth Jewish Sound Archive, one of the world’s leading online archives of Jewish recordings, in 2002.

MICHAEL B. MAYOR

MICHAEL B. MAYOR, cofounder of the Orthopedic Device Retrieval Program at Dartmouth Biomedical Engineering Center (DBEC), retired in January. Mayor, an adjunct professor of engineering and emeritus professor of orthopedics surgery at Geisel School of Medicine and DHMC, was a pioneer of total hip replacement in the US. In 1971, when he realized there was no central resource for evaluating orthopedic implant performance, he partnered with Professor John Collier to develop a center for retrieval analysis. DBEC’s program—which studies orthopedic devices and provides feedback to manufacturers and surgeons—is now one of the largest in the world. His research has facilitated the optimization of design and materials leading to profound quality-of-life improvements for patients worldwide. In addition to his work at DBEC, Mayor has guided engineering students for more than 30 years, serving on the thesis committees for bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students at Thayer.