ITHACA, N.Y. -- Ronald R. Kline has been named the first holder of a new chair in the ethics and history of professional engineering in Cornell University's College of Engineering. Kline is professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) and of science and technology studies.

The chair, the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay Jr. Professor in the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering, was endowed in 2000 with a gift from alumnus Harry Bovay, civil and environmental engineering, Cornell class of 1936, and his wife, Sue. It will become part of a campuswide initiative that is teaching ethics throughout the disciplines, funded through a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts. The Bovays have established a similar chair at Texas A&M University.

Kline's research interests are the history of technology and engineering. He also does research on bringing science and technology studies to bear on engineering ethics and is writing a book on the history of information theory. At Cornell, where he has lectured on engineering ethics since 1989, he taught a spring semester undergraduate course this year on ethical issues in engineering, and in the fall he plans a course on technology in society.

He joined the Cornell faculty in 1987 as an assistant professor in the history of technology in the College of Engineering. In 2001 Kline was named a full professor in ECE, as well as in the Department of Science and Technology Studies. He obtained his B.S. in electrical engineering from Kansas State University in 1969. His M.A. (1979) and his Ph.D. (1983) were earned in the history of science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In the early 1990s, an endowment from the Bovays established at Cornell the Bovay Program for the Study of the History and Ethics of Professional Engineering, which has become an important part of academic life in the engineering college. The program supports the integration of the history and ethics of the engineering profession into undergraduate engineering courses.In 1946, Harry Bovay founded Bovay Engineers Inc., a company that was to undertake projects for NASA and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, as well as participate in the construction of major airports, schools, universities and factories around the world. Bovay later became president of Mid-South Telecommunications Co. and operator of Bovista Farms in Tennessee and Texas. He is a life member of Cornell University Council and is past president of the Cornell Club of Houston. He was a member of the research and advisory committee of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and he also is a supporter of Texas A&M University and the Boy Scouts of America. Bovay has been president of the Texas Society of Professional Engineers and the National Society of Professional Engineers.