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CORVALLIS - The Oregon State University College of Engineering will join the nation this week in celebrating National Engineers Week, culminating with a keynote address on Friday, Feb. 27, by John Lienhard, a distinguished OSU engineering alumnus and host of the public radio show "The Engines of Our Ingenuity."

Lienhard's address will be similar in style to his radio program, which tells the story of how our culture is formed by human creativity and uses the record of history to reveal the way art, technology, and ideas have shaped human civilization. His talk, "The Polytechnique/Land Grant Legacy: Napoleon to Corvallis," will explore how the renowned French technical university, École Polytechnique, has influenced engineering education in the U.S., including at OSU.

This presentation and discussion will begin at 3 p.m. in the Construction and Engineering Hall of LaSells Stewart Center on the OSU Campus. The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. To attend, contact Gail Mathieson at 541-737-5317.

Friday evening, Lienhard will attend the Oregon Stater Awards, a banquet honoring extraordinary alumni and friends of the College of Engineering for their contributions to the profession and to Oregon State University. Lienhard was inducted into the OSU College of Engineering's Hall of Fame in 2000.

In more than 1,800 episodes that have aired since the inception of Lienhard's program in 1988, topics have ranged from cable cars to Civil War submarines, from the connection between Romantic poets and Victorian science, to the invention of the bar code.

"It's a great privilege to have John Lienhard return to OSU to help us celebrate National Engineers Week and the way engineers of all kinds help improve the world," said Chris Bell, associate dean of engineering at OSU. "John presents fascinating information about engineering, technology, art and culture in an accessible, exciting and fun way."

Lienhard attended high school in Roseburg, Ore., and graduated from OSU with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1951. He is a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering and M.D. Anderson Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering and History at the University of Houston. He is widely known for his research in the thermal sciences as well as in cultural history.

Written and hosted by Lienhard, the program is heard nationally on public radio stations. For more information about Lienhard's radio program, visit: http://www.uh.edu/engines. For more information about the OSU College of Engineering, visit: http://engr.oregonstate.edu.