Meet Your Neighbors: Eric von Hippel

Meet Eric von Hippel, one of our neighbors in the Esplanade. You might see him walking up Cambridge Parkway on his way to MIT where he is the T. Wilson Professor of Technological Innovation in the MIT Sloan School of Management. He was also the co-founder of the MIT Entrepreneurship Program. Eric and his wife Jessie have lived in the Esplanade since 1990. Prior to moving here, they had lived elsewhere in East Cambridge in order to have a short walking commute to MIT.  Truth to tell, they did not like their pre-Esplanade housing very much, and so the construction of the Esplanade gave them a wonderful new option.  Indeed, the decision for Eric was instant: Upon being shown a unit by a sales person, he promptly told his wife that “I’m not leaving; let’s get someone to pack up our furniture and send it over!” Today he still feels the same way; the von Hippels are still here and still love living at the Esplanade.  

In his childhood, Eric recalls that his father, Arthur Robert von Hippel, a Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, was an inspiration. Arthur would take young Eric with him to MIT when he went in to work on weekends, simply suggesting that Eric wander the corridors while Dad worked in his Lab. “MIT was a magic place for me; I would wander about and ask a lot of questions. Everyone was very kind and patient with me.” After an undergraduate degree from Harvard, a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering from MIT and a Ph.D. at Carnegie Mellon in Innovation (then a brand-new field), Eric was hired as an Assistant Professor at MIT. His father’s pride was evident as he introduced Eric to his colleagues as “the next generation.” “Those were wonderful years with both of us there.”That was the beginning of a career filled with many accomplishments including two start-up companies, several honorary degrees, and many books and articles.  Eric is also happy to be continuing the family tradition; he’s the “8thor 9thgeneration professor in his family.

Eric and Jessie’s children, Christiana and Eric James, grew up in the Esplanade, and family visits with the children to MIT were frequent.  In a way, Eric was continuing the family tradition of introducing academia to the next generation at an early age.  But, of course, as Eric recalls, you never know what they will find interesting. His son, for example, was fascinated at age six by a crane he discovered in an engineering lab at MIT.  His interest in MIT and academia immediately increased: Dad, he said, “You never told me professors had cranes!”  His daughter Christiana immediately took a territorial interest in the whiteboards in Eric’s office.  Starting at age four, she would reach as high as she could, covering the bottom portion of the boards with drawings.  Dad was strictly instructed to never erase them.  As she grew, she could reach progressively higher and higher -- and so could cover more and more of the boards with her drawings. In the end, when her interest finally waned, only a small upper fraction of the boards was still available for Dad to write upon.  

Christiana and Eric James are both now grown up and out on their own. Christiana received her Sc.D. from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in 2018. She is currently living in Berkeley CA with her husband, studying and writing about health-related user innovations. Eric James has just graduated from Emerson College in Media Studies and is planning next steps in this unique time.  Jessie, Eric’s wife, is an editor of scholarly books and journal articles, a tennis player, and an invaluable member of the ECG Board.

It is clear that much of Eric’s joy comes from the pride he has in his children and his loving family. (We should also mention that, until his death last September at the age of 21, Merlin, their beloved cockatiel, was also part of their family. You can read more about Merlin and his life at the Esplanade here.) 

With all his accomplishments, Eric remains modest, curious, with a great sense of humor, and thoroughly enjoying life at the Esplanade.  If you want to know more about his work, his books and articles can be downloaded for free from his MIT website  https://evhippel.mit.edu/  Eric promises that some of these materials, for example, his 2017 book Free Innovation,are not painful to read – and possibly even interesting!  (Free Innovationfocuses on DIY innovation development by consumers: this kind of activity can be seen today in all the consumer-level problem solving devoted to developing Covid 19-related innovations, such as novel masks and inexpensive medical ventilators.)

Jane Hilburt Davis