Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement: 2005
Philip G. Baker '65
Phil Baker, for more than 30 years your career has been a journey of intellectual curiosity, innovation, and leadership.
In 1965, after earning a bachelor's degree in physics from WPI, you received a National Science Foundation traineeship and scholarship from Yale University, where you earned an M.S. in engineering. You briefly considered teaching, but instead joined Polaroid Corporation, where you spent 16 years, earning more than 25 patents.
As a senior optical engineer you co-invented, with founder Edwin Land, a significant improvement to optical systems, and you collaborated with Ansel Adams on the development of new product concepts. As a principal design engineer you directed the development of products in the United States and Japan, while also teaching a management seminar in optics and earning an MBA from Northeastern University.
In 1983 you joined Atari Inc., where you developed consumer telephony products in the newly formed AtariTel division. Subsequently, as director of the video games division of Imagic Inc., you led a team that created 16 software titles for PCs and game machines.
When a venture capital/incubator group asked you to develop technology to produce color slides for presentations, you agreed, then co-founded Presentation Technologies Inc. to market ImageMaker and ImageMate; WPI was one of your first customers. You later played key roles in new product and market development, and created international manufacturing and business relationships for such firms as Seiko, Apple Computer, and Polycom.
In 1988, you co-founded Think Outside Inc. with Bob Olodort. The company's flagship product, the Stowaway Portable Keyboard handheld devices, became a million-seller in its first year and won nearly every major new product award. In 2001, you and Olodort received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the consumer products category.
You have shared your knowledge as a guest lecturer on entrepreneurship and product development at several California universities. Now a consultant, you continue to serve on the board of directors at Think Outside and write the technology column for the San Diego Daily Transcript.
Phil Baker, for your innovative approaches to technical challenges, outstanding leadership, and entrepreneurial spirit, it is with great pleasure that WPI presents you with the Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement.