American Scientist

Last March I traveled to Boston to give a talk to a student meeting hosted by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section (BSCES) of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). The cumbersome name of the local organization stems from the fact that the Boston society, the oldest permanent engineering society in America, wanted to retain its identity when in 1974 it became a section of the ASCE, the oldest national engineering society. The distinction was clear at the meeting, where an ASCE banner hung from the front of the lectern, while a much larger BSCES banner hung higher on the wall behind it. The former bore the date 1852, that of the founding of ASCE; the latter bore the date 1848, that of the founding of BSCE.