Tracing Ernst Weber’s Correspondence
By: Leon Zhao
Who was Ernst Weber
Ernst Weber was an extremely decorated engineer at Polytechnic University. His main connection to Poly was serving as a professor and eventually the president. Beyond Poly he also served as the inaugural president of IEEE1, the premiere society for engineering which to this day is still active and respected. Some of his engineering accomplishments include critically improving radar in WWII and pioneering microwave research, for which his research organization was eventually granted over 30 patents and in 1987 he also received the National Medal of Science from president Reagan for his work1.
Photo of Weber1
Both as a decorated engineer and a senior leader of Polytechnic University, Weber had a significant voice both in the development of the entire Long Island’s (including Brooklyn) engineering landscape as well as general government attitude.
We will look at some of his correspondence during some of his most active years, spanning primarily 1955 - 1970. Most frequently we can find instances of Weber corresponding with important government figures, other academics, Polytechnic constituents, and even corporations.
A primary focus will be when corresponding with aforementioned groups, and focusing on motivations and how he advocates for Poly. A few broad themes we’ll cover
- Weber’s personal achievements and responsibilities
- Weber’s responsibilities to Polytechnic as president and the push to be a top tier engineering school
- Weber’s broad involvement in advocating for engineering everywhere in the USA
While I was unable to trace an instance where Weber’s various roles appear to come into direct conflict, we will find that Weber is involved in a lot of very different places, where we infer he may have taken on too much responsibility.
Finally, we will examine Polytechnic’s broader position and reputation in New York during Weber’s tenure. It is likely that at the time Polytechnic was the “best” engineering school in the New York area and should have been the best positioned University to become the “MIT of New York”
Project Origins + Archival Gaps
The original intention of this project was to specifically trace the history of the Microwave Research Institute (MRI), which later became the Weber Research Institute. MRI does not exist today and the last trace I was able to find was a 2012 archived website31. Ultimately the correspondence I traced did not reveal much about what happened to MRI.
The first gap is probably in the type of correspondence that is in the Poly Archives. The primary focus is about Weber’s business correspondence – leaving no attempt at inferring his general personality. The focus will be on his ambitions and primary work life and the correspondence will be professional.
The second is in the correspondence I filtered. Among the correspondence left in Weber’s boxes I ignored many that did not relate to scientific or academic progress.
1955-1965
A common theme is the worry about not enough funding in graduate education and not enough students being enrolled. He seems to primarily focus on the graduate programs. Frequently the topic of money appears, in specific, funding for Poly.
Statement for Wall Street Journal by Weber [May 19, 1958]2
This is the oldest interesting professional correspondence in Weber’s box. Weber warns that the post-Sputnik shifts in Department of Defense spending have done little to bolster fundamental research. He says “during the 1956-1957 fiscal year the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn expended $2,577,500 on 149 research contracts”2. Including June of 1958 he projects up to $2.75 million on 165 contracts. He also claims that even a modest 10 percent increase in research spending could deliver a 30 percent increase in research activities. In this writing he explicitly mentions solid-state physics by name, which are critical to materials science and electronics development.
Letter to Miss Terry Ferrer (undated)3
In his letter to the New York Herald Tribune, Weber laments that full-time graduate engineering enrollment was almost nonexistent. He describes how industry hires away nearly all the most promising students before they could pursue advanced degrees. He notes that although “in June 1959 a total of 714 doctor’s degrees were given in engineering by all the accredited graduate schools… the requirements of one of the nation’s major companies amounted to 200 new employees with graduate degrees in engineering. He makes the claim that they need to increase the number of graduate degrees by at least a factor of three in short order to satisfy the present needs, which aligns with the measured amount of degrees.
This is a place worth analyzing further with respect to the attempted positioning of Polytechnic as “MIT of New York”. If the claimed numbers are correct and the companies asking for this many engineers are successful industries it should have been a perfect excuse to secure additional funding from either the company or the government, neither of which happen. The enrollment increase is nowhere near triple in the years following this letter and neither is the funding.
Letter to Robert Patton [Aug 15, 1960]4
Here we see examples of Weber interfacing with the broader academic community, contacting the editor Robert Patton of the Journal of Higher Education. He agrees here to write in the Journal, where “basically, he believes that without research sponsorship education in science and engineering would become impossible today”
Letter to the Senate (May 23, 1960)5
An early example of Weber directly asking the highest levels of government for an increase in NSF funding. There isn’t any strong evidence of the claims he makes, mostly relying on his reputation as an educator and scientist.
Letter to Ramsey D Ackerman [Sep 17, 1963]7
Here is an example of Weber interacting with the corporate world. He writes to Ramsey D Ackerman, the Vice President and Treasurer of Maxson Electronics Company. In particular, this is a response to Ackerman’s claims that “‘Brooklyn Poly tries’ but can’t match M.I.T. or Cal Tech”. He goes on to defend Poly, claiming that Poly spending is in the top 10 for research expenditures by research institutions across the USA. In specific, the Long Island Graduate Center serves 1000 (primarily electrical) graduate engineers. He also claims that Poly invested $2 million in the Farmingdale Graduate Center where only $200k (approximately $2 million today32) of it came from industry donors.
This is a place where we could conjecture that funding is a very large part of the difference in MIT and Poly. By 1960 not only had MIT made a venture capital fund with over $30 million (approximately $300 million today) from outside investors, but was also “by September 30 of the next year MIT had research contracts in excess of ten million dollars, almost entirely with the federal government”6, where we can see by this point MIT is somewhat regularly getting contracts with totals on the order of ten million dollars.
Letter to Senators Kenneth B Keating, Jacob Javits [Nov 12, 1963]9
Weber writes an extremely short letter to senators Keating and Javits directly asking for them by name to sign the College Education Facilities Act. This act essentially is an increase in funding and grants for College Institutions and is not only still active today, but has seen several changes over the years. The act also goes by the name Higher Education Act.
1966 Onward
Statement by Ernst (Planned publication date Feb 1, 1966)10
In a statement planned for Feb 1, 1966 Weber warns that the single greatest threat to Long Island’s future was the gradual loss of engineering schools. Part of the perceived dominance is that Long Island at the time employed approximately 19000 scientists across 200 labs in a wide variety of scientific disciplines. Here we also see Weber specifically advocate for more graduate degrees in the country, there are few references to the undergraduate program which we can infer he must have thought satisfactory. On the graduate side he notes that Polytechnic has 480 full time graduate students and about 2600 part time graduate students and further claims this is about 10% of the Island’s science and engineering manpower. Weber also mentions again the Farmingdale Center, which was funded about $2 million (approximately $20 million today). They focus on “rocket fuels, reentry vehicles, supersonic combustion, aero physical aspects of hypersonic flows, plasma physics, and microwave synthesis techniques”. Lastly he also again mentions the need for an MIT-like campus in Long Island, with the unspoken implication that Poly cannot serve this purpose.
Letter to Weber from John G Truxal [Oct 2, 1967]11
Correspondence with another distinguished engineering professor from Stony Brook, expressing that he likes Weber’s article “The Modern Technical University”. It demonstrates that not only were Weber’s views somewhat commonly held among academics but that Weber was influential and reached out to.
The Modern Technical University 1967
This is Weber’s miniature manifesto about technology and the technical universities position in daily life. He makes a broad statement but how technology has become deeply ingrained in daily life and that technical universities need to not only have strong technical foundations to invent novel technologies, but also the social presence / understanding to actually create useful technologies.
In terms of more specific university policy, he believes in an emphasis on logic and thinking rather than grades in any specialty. He describes how universities should be next to labs where research and engineering are done, that faculty should have practical experience either through large scale sponsored research or minor consulting work (one day per week). Lastly he says the social science faculty should be selected for their desire to engage with engineering and science.
He emphasizes the advanced degree (masters degrees for general design and a PhD for research). He encourages general physics, chemistry, math, and life sciences, but overall that the degree matters less than the character and personality of the student.
Letter to Lee Bridge [May 5, 1969]12
Here we see Weber’s participation in a letter to Lee Bridge, who is the Presidential Science Advisor at the time. Weber is CC’ed on the letter, broadly discussing university responses to the Vietnam War. They ask the government to involve themselves in a public discussion on the social effects of mission oriented research with the Department of Defense. Here we can see a rare case of Weber moving beyond strictly engineering and involving himself in social efforts.
Letter to Weber from John E McKeen [May 9, 1969]13
John McKeen is the Chairman of the Poly Board who writes to Weber saying Poly received a grant of $2 million and a supplemental $500k. Compared to earlier numbers this is quite a small amount of money compared to what MIT is receiving.
Letter to Weber from [illegible] Sep 29, 197014
A letter to Weber asking him to prepare the intro section to an NSF program report about the impacts of a 5 year program on Poly. The letter describes how essentially no one else is qualified to do this properly.
We can conjecture off of this letter that Weber somehow accumulated too much responsibility, whether that be micromanaging Poly or with his other titles. It is a little bit strange that only the highest ranking individual in the entire school has the proper background to write an intro on the impacts of a program persisting in Poly for 5 years.
Weber’s Accomplishments
Included in his role as President of Polytechnic, he has also served as an advisor on the defense science board, on the army scientific advisory panel, signal corps advisory panel and president of IEEE.
Poly’s Position in New York
In a telegram28 to the standing mayor Nelson Rockefeller in 1963, Weber essentially asks the mayor not to announce New York Tech as the rival to MIT. It appears at this point in time there are multiple New York schools vying for the top position and the Mayor is not on Polytechnic’s side. Two days later a formal letter29 is sent again, but with a few more details. Weber advocates more strongly for Poly’s position as a strong school and that establishing a new school with budgets of around $30 million will not help the situation of establishing a top school in New York.
Selected Poly Money Timeline (1965-1972)
- Nov 03, 1965: $3.3m from the NSF to improve “already good universities”18. It’s important to note that not that many universities were receiving this grant.
- Apr 06, 1968: $600k from the NSF to expand Poly Computer Center16
- Jun 24, 1968: $343k from the NSF to build computers in Long Island high schools17
- Feb 07, 1970: Pessimistic letter to the budget committee and board of Polytechnic. The budget has been contracted after the midpoint for the first time and equipment purchases + necessary maintenance are getting delayed. They are approximately $3m negative each year at this point.
Poly Enrollment
We are able to see that not only did many departments simply not exist prior to 1958-1968, the total number of baccalaureate degrees awarded each year actually is not increasing year over year25. We can also notice a drop around when the US entered the Vietnam War that may have been from social factors and with extremely young social science departments the enrollment will be very dependent on public sentimentality.
We also get to see Polytechnic’s projected and actual enrollment numbers27 where it appears Weber’s focus seems to have paid off, possibly at the cost of undergraduate attractiveness. The same report also includes an income/expensive comparison where we see expenses exceed income consistently. Even before the 1970 letter to the Board it was known Poly had faced fiscal trouble.
While currently out of scope for this project, the Poly Archives records board meetings and are released on a time delay. Future researchers could continue the analysis of Polytechnic’s trajectory by searching here.
Poly Finances
Ultimately we can only make educated guesses as to why Weber’s broader ambition of making Polytechnic an elite institute were not fully realized. Throughout his correspondence, Weber typically seemed confident in the strength of Poly’s academic programs amongst other engineering universities in the US. Trusting his perception of academic ability, a natural other cause of disparity to look at is money. Included in this presentation are efforts to explore the financial situation.
Poly is Expensive
In the chart we are able to see Polytechnic tuition vastly outpace the rate of support the institution received from other sources. We conjecture this is discouraging talented students who may be receiving a worse ratio of research material, education quality for a comparable amount of tuition at other institutions19.
In the below chart21, we see the rapid increases in educational cost excluding research skyrocketing, with no explanation. We can see from the chart below and infer from the chart above that it was an important point that on a per-student level there was no deficit and that indeed tuition was intended to make up a large portion of the educational cost.
In a Crimson article (one of Harvard’s longest running newspapers) we see that MIT’s tuition in 1968 was also $190022 and that they were seeking an additional $2 million for scholarships and loan support.
Operating Budget
In the spirit of comparing with MIT we tracked down a survey of top universities enrollment and budgets. Polytechnic actually has the fourth highest operating budget of the listed universities behind MIT, Cal Tech, and Carnegie Institute20. This still remains roughly true when you normalize spending per enrolled student. However the two true outliers still remain as MIT and Caltech. Caltech spends almost double annually for less than half the students at Polytechnic. MIT goes even further, spending almost ten times annually for only double the amount of students.
It’s difficult to explain by only this chart, despite the grand total of support at CalTech and MIT being larger than Poly it is nowhere near enough to account for the large disparity in operating budget. Another interesting category is alumni giving, in which Poly is actually ahead of both MIT and Caltech as a percentage of their total support. We also get a view of 5 years later26. We see that 5 years later, MIT operating budget has slightly but their endowment has doubled from $100 million to $200 million. Poly has increased their endowment from $5 million to $6 million in the same time.
We are also able to see below23 an exact breakdown of Polytechnic expenses, shown in thousands of dollars. We are able to see that Poly has begun operating a deficit.
The extremely detailed report is below for fiscal year 1969-197024. Before the breakdown the letter expresses extreme concerns over faster rising costs than rising support, to the degree of delaying shipments and maintenance.
Conclusion And Legacy
Ultimately, Polytechnic never fully achieved the ambitious goal of becoming the "MIT of New York," despite Weber’s tireless advocacy and leadership. Weber’s correspondence, from appealing to senators and government officials for increased NSF funding to defending Poly’s position against criticism from industry leaders to engaging broadly with academia on the future of technical education, Weber consistently retained his confidence in the institution's academic strength.
However, as indicated repeatedly through financial reports and budget committee letters, Weber faced struggles against structural financial constraints and deficits. Notably, any effort to become like MIT must have done so with significantly fewer financial resources than MIT itself. His numerous responsibilities, possibly even overextended at times, combined with the financial challenges of rising operational costs and tuition that significantly outpaced scholarship support, limited his ability to fulfill his broader ambitions for Polytechnic.
Nonetheless, Weber’s persistent engagement with government, academia, and industry significantly shaped the trajectory of engineering education on Long Island, and though MRI itself no longer exists, his legacy persists in a strong wireless research group at NYU..
References
[1] "Ernst Weber." Engineering and Technology History Wiki. Accessed March 12, 2025.
[2] Weber, Ernst. Article for Wall Street Journal. May 19, 1958. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[3] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Miss Terry Ferrer. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[4] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Robert Patton. Aug 15, 1960. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[5] Weber, Ernst. Letter to the Senate. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[6] Etzkowitz, Henry. "The Making of an Entrepreneurial University: The Traffic Among MIT, Industry, and the Military, 1860–1960." In Science, Technology and the Military, 515–540. Sociology of the Sciences, vol. 12/1/2. Dordrecht: Springer, 1990. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-2958-1_10.
[7] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Ramsey D Ackerman. May 23, 1960. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[8] "Schools—Higher Education Facilities Act." Virtual Underwriter, November 2005. Accessed April 2, 2025. https://www.virtualunderwriter.com/en/underwriting-manuals/2005-11/UM00000053.html
[9] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Senators Keating and Javits. Nov 12, 1963. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[10] Weber, Ernst. Advertising Statement. Feb 1, 1966. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[11] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Truxal. Oct 2, 1967. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[12] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Bridge. May 5, 1969. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[13] Weber, Ernst. Letter from McKeen. May 9, 1969. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[14] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Weber. Sep 29, 1970. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 10, Folder 5), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed 12 March 2025.
[15] Saxon, Wolfgang. 1996. “Ernst Weber, 94, Who Oversaw Polytechnic University’s Growth.” The New York Times, February 17, 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/17/nyregion/ernst-weber-94-who-oversaw-polytechnic-university-s-growth.html.
[16] Sunday News. April 6, 1969. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[17] Polytechnic Faculty News. June 24, 1968. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[18] National Science Foundation. Press Release. November 3, 1965. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[19] Untitled chart (undated, unlabeled). Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[20] Council for Financial Aid to Education. Survey for Voluntary Support of America’s Colleges and Universities, 1960–1961. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[21] Educational Cost per Student at Polytechnic (no author). July 16, 1968. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[22] The Harvard Crimson. “MIT Tuition Fee Will Go Up $250 For ’68–’69 Year.” December 9, 1967. The Harvard Crimson. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1967/12/9/mit-tuition-fee-will-go-up/. Accessed April 16, 2025.
[23] Polytechnic Budget Breakdown (no author). 1969–1970. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[24] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Budget Committee, Executive Committee, and Board of Polytechnic. February 13, 1970. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[25] Office of the Registrar. Summary of Baccalaureate Degrees Awarded. October 1, 1968. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[26] Selected Colleges & Universities — Relative Size, Support & Expenditures (no author, undated). Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[27] Growth Curves, Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. March 26, 1967. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[28] Weber, Ernst. Telegram to Nelson A. Rockefeller. January 5, 1963. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[29] Weber, Ernst. Letter to Nelson A. Rockefeller. January 7, 1963. Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 12, Folder 1), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[30] Plaques commemorating Ernst Weber (undated). Poly Archives, Ernst Weber Collections (Box 2), Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn Collection (RG_033). NYU Libraries, Accessed April 16, 2025.
[31] Microwave Research Institute. “Polytechnic University Research Centers.” Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn website (archived April 18, 2012). Internet Archive. https://web.archive.org/web/20120418220129/http://archive.poly.edu/researchcenters/wri/index.php. Accessed May 11, 2025
[32] U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “Inflation Calculator.” Accessed May 13, 2025. https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm.