On October 15, 1973, George Bugliarello was inaugurated 13th President of what was then known as the Polytechnic Institute of New York. President Bugliarello took the reins at the most precarious time in Polytechnic's long history. Amid a national economic crisis in the 1970s, several private academic institutions in New York City were on the brink of collapse, including Polytechnic and New York University. On the brink of bankruptcy, New York University was forced to sell its University Heights campus in the Bronx to the City of New York. New York University also lost its School of Engineering in a merger with Polytechnic University of Brooklyn, which was then renamed Polytechnic University of New York. George Bugliarello, who served as President for between 1973 and 1994 and subsequently served as President emeritus and Chancellor until 2011, proved to be lucky Number 13 for the Institute and for the struggling neighborhood of Downtown Brooklyn.
Giorgio Bugliarello was born Georgio Bugliarello-Wondrich on May 20, 1927 to Spera Bugliarello-Wondrich and Colonel Federico Bugliarello Magnano di San Lio in Trieste, Italy. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Padua where he earned a Dottore in Ingegneria (Dott.Ing.) in Civil Engineering. In 1954 he earned a Master's in Civil Engineering from the University of Minnesota on a Fulbright Scholarship. He then attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Engineering from 1956-1959, earning a doctorate in Civil Engineering and Hydronamics. George Bugliarello married his wife of over 50 years, Virginia Harding, in 1959. The couple had two sons, Nicholas and David.
Bugliarello taught Civil Engineering, Biotechnology and Bio-Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) between 1959 and 1969, serving as founding directory of the Bio-Engineering program at CMU in 1964. In 1969, Bugliarello was appointed Dean of Engineering and Professor of Civil Engineering and Biotechnology at University of Illinois at Chicago Circle.
Despite a large deficit and bitterness and confusion among students and faculty of NYU's School of Engineering and Polytechnic Institute during the merger, Bugliarello made it his mission to revive Polytechnic by focusing on three goals: Increasing enrollment and academic programs through satellite campuses in Westchester and Long Island, increasing fundraising efforts and alumni outreach and develop a technological-industrial park in downtown Brooklyn. George Bugliarello was instrumental in the development of the MetroTech Center in Downtown Brooklyn which currently houses the NYU-Polytechnic campus. Bugliarello's success in combining academic, scientific and public development during his career was immortalized in the term he coined "Biosoma", a contraction of biology, society and machines. It's therefore unsurprising to learn that Bugliarello was instrumental in designing the seal of Polytechnic University – Homo Et Homines Opera Partes Naturae: Man and the works of man belong to nature.
George Bugliarello's professional and academic involvements and achievements are almost innumerable. He served as member and chair of American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Engineering Education, National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, National Science Foundation, New York City Mayor's Commission on Science and Technology, and many others. Highlights include serving as founder and editor of the journal Technology in Society, president of Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, founding fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering, fellow of dozens of scientific, academic and business societies, and receiving eight honorary degrees. Over his lifetime, Bugliarello published 17 books, over 350 articles, reports, and editorials and 18 newspaper articles. George Bugliarello died on February 18, 2011 in Port Washington, New York at the age of 83.
