Dr. Marlin O. Thurston Memorial

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Dr. Marlin Thurston
This website is created in honor of Dr. Marlin O. Thurston (1918 - 2007) and in recognition of his many achievements as an educator, researcher and leader. Dr. Thurston joined the faculty in the Department of Electrical Engineering at OSU in 1955 as an Associate Professor. He was promoted to Professor in 1959 and served as Chairman of the Department from 1965 to 1977. From 1974 till his retirement in 1982, he held the Robert M. Critchfield Professorship "in recognition of his outstanding achievements as teacher, administrator, researcher, and consultant to industry and government".

During his academic career, Professor Thurston was a specialist in semiconductor and solid-state electronics. His research work won wide recognition including him being named a Fellow by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). After retiring from OSU, Professor Thurston began working with Dr. Edward Martin, Jr., a cancer surgeon at OSU’s Division of Surgical Oncology, on an electronic device to help surgeons detect cancerous tumors. This work lead to him being named as “Inventor of the Year Finalist” in 1989 by the Intellectual Property Owners Foundation and being given the Central Ohio Technical Achievement Award in 1991. He also received the highest award given to an alumnus of the OSU College of Engineering in 1991: the Benjamin G. Lamme Gold Medal for Meritorious Achievement in Engineering.

The Marlin Thurston Memorial Fund

At the request of several ECE alumni, the department has established the Marlin Thurston Memorial Fund to recognize the many achievements of Prof. Thurston as an educator, researcher, and leader. The goal of the Fund is to establish an endowed professorship in the department.  Prof. Thurston’s former students have volunteered to lead the fundraising effort: Dr. John Swartz will chair the effort and Dr. Bami Bastani and Dr. Marv White will also serve.