Woodie Flowers

Woodie C. Flowers is a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas are engineering design and product development, he holds the Pappalardo Professorship and is a MacVicar Faculty Fellow.

He gained his B.S. at Louisiana Polytechnic University in 1966 and added a M.S., a M.E., and a Ph.D., all from MIT between 1968 and 1972. He was made an Assistant Professor at MIT in 1972 and a professor in 1988.

He hosted Scientific American Frontiers on PBS from 1990 to the spring of 1993. He was replaced in that role by Alan Alda. Flowers also has the title "Distinguished Partner" at Olin College. He has been the co-founder of and national advisor to the FIRST robotics competition since its inception in 1992. Each year, the Woodie Flowers Award is given by FIRST to one mentor for his or her contributions to the students on their team. (Flowers was the first recipient of the award, which began in 1996.)

Woodie Flowers is a prominent member of the FIRST Robotics Community. He is a member of the Game and Kit Design Committee for the FIRST Robotics Competition.

In 2007, he earned a Honoris causa ^[1] from Chilean university Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello