Mitch Rosen and his sax visit the statue of fellow Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson

It is reported that Thomas Jefferson measured 6 feet 2 inches. Had they been colleagues, the 6-foot-6-inch Mitch Rosen, chief technology officer for U.Va’s Engineering School, might have recruited him for a pickup game of basketball.

Height isn’t all the two men have in common. Like Jefferson, Rosen is a fixture on Grounds. The SEAS community knows him as a consummate professional, charged with guiding the School’s information technology infrastructure and advocating computational science. And there’s more: Rosen is a mechanical engineer.

“People assume I’m a computer engineer,” Rosen says, “but while in college I started learning to use computers to model physical problems. I had to find a way to solve my engineering simulations accurately and efficiently using the available tools, first on mainframes and then using the emerging PC platform: The rest is history.”

Rosen was born and raised in New York and graduated from high school when he was just 16 years old. He then majored in mechanical engineering at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where, in addition to working his way through school as an energy consultant, he started a social fraternity. In spring 1975, the Delta Eta Chapter of Tau Delta Phi at Cooper Union was formed, and it remains active today.

Upon leaving college, Rosen worked for Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Washington, D.C., monitoring emerging opportunities and regulations in advanced solar, nuclear and fossil energies. He then went on to complete an M.S. degree (’81) and doctorate (’85) in mechanical engineering at U.Va. While a graduate student, Rosen pursued an interest in music, playing saxophone with the U.Va. Jazz Ensemble.

After working as a research faculty member analyzing jet-engine and industrial compressor design at SEAS, he left to start a consulting company. When his business partner retired, Rosen returned to the University and academic life.

On Grounds, Rosen has taught aerodynamics, fluid dynamics, programming and computer graphics. He created The Design Lab, which provides specialized computer resources and workspace for mechanical and aerospace engineering students.

Here, too, he has found a ready audience for his jazz group, “Sax Therapy,” which has played a variety of Charlottesville establishments. Even today he gets requests to play at faculty parties.

Tall in stature, long in accomplishments, Rosen says, “I do what I love and I love what I do.” A truly Jeffersonian philosophy.