Have you ever wondered who the first head of the Purdue ECE was? In 1888, Louis Bell became the first head of the School of Electrical Engineering and was also a professor of Applied Electricity.

Louis Bell was an electrical engineer and educator whose contributions to power transmission and illumination engineering shaped the field. Born in 1864 in New Hampshire, Bell was the youngest child of Louis Bell Sr., a Union Army colonel who died in the Civil War, and Mary Anne Persis Bouton. Orphaned at a young age, he was raised by his grandmother, Lucy G. Bell, who encouraged his education. Bell attended Phillips Exeter Academy before earning his A.B. from Dartmouth College in 1884. He then went on to pursue graduate studies in physics and chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1888 with a thesis titled The Absolute Wavelength of Light.

Bell’s career in academia began at Purdue, where he was appointed as a professor of Applied Electricity and became the first head of the newly established School of Electrical Engineering in 1888. Though he left Purdue after only a year, his work laid the groundwork for the program's future success. After leaving Purdue, Bell went into industry, working as an editor for Electrical World and later serving as chief engineer for General Electric’s power transmission department. His engineering knowledge led to the design and implementation of some of the first polyphase power transmission systems in the U.S. His work on the Redlands Power Plant in California and the Folsom Powerhouse had tremendous impact. Folsom Powerhouse was the first facility in the U.S. to transmit alternating current over a long distance at what is now the standard 60 Hz frequency.

Beyond power engineering, Bell made significant contributions to the field of illumination. He authored The Art of Illumination (1902), which became a standard reference, and worked on early headlight lens design for automobiles. He also extended his Electrical Engineering knowledge to the military. He served as a technical officer in the Volunteer Electrical Corps during the Spanish-American War and later advised the U.S. government during World War I. Over the years, he lectured at Harvard and MIT and served as president of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

Despite his busy professional life, Bell enjoyed the outdoors and maintained an interest in astronomy, authoring The Telescope in 1922. Bell passed away in 1923, leaving behind a legacy of innovation in electrical engineering. Shortly after his death, Dartmouth College honored him with a Doctorate of Science. His pioneering contributions continue to influence the field of electrical engineering today, and his early leadership at Purdue helped shape the ECE program into what it is today.