Remembering Two-Time Engineering Dean Herbert Rabin

Herbert Rabin, a champion for engineering and entrepreneurship education, and an influential figure in the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s history, has died.

Rabin received his Ph.D. in physics from UMD in 1959 and worked at the Naval Research Laboratory and as deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for research, applied and space technology before returning the university in 1983. He was the founding director of the Engineering Research Center (later the Maryland Technology Enterprise Institute, or Mtech), a Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the only person to serve twice as dean of the school.

“Herb Rabin was a tremendous innovator and servant to the University of Maryland,” said UMD President Darryll J. Pines. “He was pioneering in bringing entrepreneurship initiatives and startup incubators to College Park, launching what is known today as Mtech. Dean Rabin was a truly thoughtful advisor and mentor, and he will be deeply missed.”

During Rabin’s first decade at the university, Mtech launched an extension service to connect university expertise with manufacturing companies; the state’s first incubator for startup companies; a facility to help biotechnology companies figure out how to scale up their products; a program to jointly fund company/university technology product development projects; and a program that supported industry-relevant undergraduate research. 

The incubator, Mtech Ventures, has supported nearly 150 technology startups, including two that sold for more than $1 billion. Mtech evolved to include technology entrepreneurship education, launching the nation’s first living-learning entrepreneurship initiative, the Hinman CEOs Program. This blossomed into a suite of programs that included a minor in technology entrepreneurship, a yearly startup boot camp replicated nationally, an annual business plan competition, two master’s degrees and two additional undergraduate entrepreneurship programs.

Mtech went on during Rabin’s tenure to add a second-stage incubator in College Park, an international incubator and the Chesapeake Bay Seed Capital Fund.

Rabin served as interim dean of the Clark School during 1999 and 2000, and again from 2007-08. In that role, he established the school’s faculty outstanding research award, initiated policies to promote Intergovernmental Personnel Act assignments, helped plan the expansion of the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building, one of campus’ signature facilities, and more.

“Generations of Terps—and, more broadly, Marylanders—continue to benefit from what he created. He was an entrepreneur in the truest sense of the world,” said Clark School Dean Samuel Graham.

Rabin retired in 2010, the same year he received the president’s medal, the highest honor the university can bestow on an individual.