Introduction

Throughout the history of mankind, humans have always dedicated significant institutions and constructions to those we idolize and admire. In Ancient Egypt, great temples were built for the gods and unrealistically large pyramids were built for their pharaohs. There are many tremendously historic examples of dedications such as these, but the act of dedicating some construction or project to a person occurs in uncountable numbers at institutions of education. On every university campus, nearly every academic building, athletics facility, and even dormitory is named after a person or family. 

As shown on the map, most of the buildings and institutions at our Tandon School of Engineering follow the same described pattern, being named after figures who were significant to the university. In this exibit, the lives of those figures are explored and detailed. Each dedicated person made their own unique contribution to Polytechnic and the scientific world as pioneers in their respective fields. Some of these people were greatly involved with the university, and the university dedicated buildings to them for their influence. On the other hand, some of the namings occured solely due to a monetary donation from the honoree to the university. Generally, most instances of namings at institutions of learning occur due to a donation. Despite this, some namings at NYU Tandon - mainly the naming of the entire school itself - were highly controversial due to the fact that the only connection between the honoree and the university was the donation.