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Profile
Profile Professor Samuel Eilon: Engineer, leader and businessman In May, Imperial College Business School welcomed back Professor Samuel Eilon, a leading figure in the founding of the School Written by: Rebecca Firth
“ The year he received his professorship was the same one in which he moved his family into the house in which he still lives”
Imperial College London is an institution not short on history: from the Queen’s Tower that dominates the South Kensington campus, to the statue of Queen Victoria that greets you as you enter the main building on Exhibition Road. Yet often overlooked is the history of the people who have worked at the College. In May, then-Acting Dean Professor Nelson Phillips hosted a reception in honour of Professor Samuel Eilon, a man credited with laying many of the foundations of the Business School as we know it today. Notable attendees included the President of Imperial College London Professor Alice Gast, then-Associate Dean Diane Morgan, Mrs Hannah Eilon and Dr Amir Eilon (the son of Professor Eilon and himself an Imperial College Business School alumnus), and their families. Imperial career Professor Eilon graduated in Electrical Engineering from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in 1945, and went on to serve in the Israeli armed forces. When the time came to adjust his focus back to his career and decide on a location for his postgraduate studies, he had “a list of American business schools, including Columbia and the University of Michigan” to choose from. Yet, he recalls, it was his old headmaster who suggested Imperial College as the place to study. The Professor’s arrival in London in 1952 will sound familiar to anyone landing at Gatwick or Heathrow today: his first impression of the city was “very big and noisy” and “fascinating, with lots to do”. His studies resulted in a Diploma of Imperial College and PhD in 1955, after which he stayed on to become a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department. He won two Whitworth Prizes for papers published by
IN BRIEF
PhD from Imperial College London Former Professor of Production Engineering Former Head of the Department of Management Science Founding member of the Royal Academy of Engineering
the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1960. In 1963, he was awarded a DSc (Eng) and, in 1964, became Professor of Production Engineering. One of Professor Eilon’s most notable achievements during his 37 years at Imperial was the creation of the one-year advanced course in Operational Research and Management Studies in 1961. This programme helped to lay the foundations of the School of Management, now known as Imperial College Business School. In 1971, Professor Eilon was appointed Head of the newly created Department of Management Science. In addition to his work at Imperial, Professor Eilon was a member of the Monopolies Commission and, in 1976, one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Engineering. The latter, then known as the Fellowship of Engineering, was created with the purpose of advancing and promoting excellence in all fields of engineering. He also published 17 books and was the Chief Editor of Omega: The International Journal of Management Science.