a visiting professorship at the university in 1931. Stephen Timoshenko created the first U.S. bachelor's and doctoral programs in engineering mechanics when he was a faculty professor at the university. In 1948, shortly after World War II, the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project was established to honor the hundreds of lives lost from the university during the war. Funded by numerous contributors, including the Ford Motor Company, the Phoenix Project operated the Ford Nuclear Reactor, which established the nation's first academic program in nuclear science and engineering.
=== 1950 to present ===
For most of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Michigan stood as the sole university within the state, and its alumni often dominated state politics. However, by the mid-20th century, the landscape began to shift as new universities emerged, many of which were former technical schools, thereby threatening that status quo. When Harlan Hatcher took office as president in 1951, he was entrusted with securing the university's …
