{"id":22,"date":"2015-08-27T11:40:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T18:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/?p=22"},"modified":"2015-09-04T15:18:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T22:18:14","slug":"broad-strokes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/broad-strokes\/","title":{"rendered":"Broad Strokes"},"content":{"rendered":"

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN A SUBJECT, TRY TEACHING IT.<\/strong> John Molinder knows this well. In 45 years at the College, he\u2019s taught courses in the engineering systems sequence, communication and information theory, electronics, microprocessors, and calculus, to name a few.<\/p>\n

They let me\u00a0teach things\u00a0[at Harvey\u00a0Mudd] that I\u00a0would never\u00a0have been\u00a0allowed\u00a0to teach\u00a0elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u2013 John Molinder<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cOne of the things I liked about Harvey Mudd is that they let me teach things that I would never have been allowed to teach elsewhere,\u201d says the recently retired James Howard Kindelberger Professor of Engineering. \u201cWe\u2019re a small place with a non-specialized engineering program. Unless the faculty are willing to move out of their specialized areas of expertise, you can\u2019t maintain it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProblems don\u2019t come neatly packaged in disciplines,\u201d says Molinder, who earned his bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. \u201cI went through a much more specialized program. When I finished, I had to broaden out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molinder believes that by focusing on fundamental principles, the College\u2019s non-specialized engineering major allows students to see applications to a wide variety of disciplines rather than only a narrow specialty. He also credits the College\u2019s commitment to the humanities, social sciences and the arts as integral to producing well-rounded, socially responsible engineers, scientists and mathematicians. \u201cIt helps you see the big picture,\u201d he says. \u201cEven though you\u2019re majoring in STEMs, you are part of the social fabric.\u201d<\/p>\n

Molinder didn\u2019t apply for the job at Mudd. It found him.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>
John Molinder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt actually came about because of an encounter between [Professor of Engineering Emeritus] Harry Williams and [late Caltech engineering Professor] Hardy Martel, who knew of my interest in teaching,\u201d says Molinder, who in 1970 was working full-time at JPL and teaching a night class in the electrical engineering department at California State University, Los Angeles, after earning his PhD from Caltech.<\/p>\n

The encounter resulted in an interview at Mudd, and a two-year temporary appointment in 1970 led\u00a0to a tenured professorship by 1976. \u201cApparently it turned into a regular position somewhere along the line,\u201d he says, jokingly.<\/p>\n

The best of both worlds<\/h2>\n

In addition to teaching at Harvey Mudd and spending a year as a visiting professor at Caltech, Molinder also worked professionally. For over 20 years he held a part-time position at JPL, including a year at NASA Headquarters as a detailee from JPL. He also spent a year as a principal engineer at Qualcomm and another year as a contractor at Boeing Satellite Systems. \u201cThis enabled me to keep current with engineering practice and bring relevant tools and techniques into the classroom,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s retired, Molinder is keeping his options open. \u201cRight now my wife and I are enjoying the transition,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll see what comes next.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN A SUBJECT, TRY TEACHING IT. John Molinder knows this well. In 45 years at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.hmc.edu\/summer-2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}