Longtime member of the electrical engineering faculty Melvin Sandler, the Jesse Sherman Professor of Electrical Engineering Emeritus, passed away on May 1, 2025.

Sandler earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate at the Polytechnic Institute of New York, now part of New York University. A first lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, Sandler had particular interest in signal processing, electro-mechanical energy conversion, and power electronics. After working at Airborne Instruments Laboratory and as a venture capitalist at W.R. Grace, he began his career teaching electrical engineering at The Cooper Union in 1969. He served as the chair of the Electrical Engineering department starting in 1995, and his work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and others.

Besides his dedication to teaching Cooper undergrads, a significant part of Sandler’s legacy at The Cooper Union is his founding of the Retraining Program for Immigrant Engineers (RPIE). The nine-month, free program offers a unique opportunity for immigrants and refugees trained as engineers outside of the United States to learn American engineering practices and gain job placement support. Sandler founded the program in 1991 in collaboration with B'Nai Zion, a philanthropic organization, which provided classroom space while Cooper provided professors to teach the courses. According to Professor Fred Fontaine, B'nai Zion “played a role simlar to what CAMBA does now—recruiting applicants and helping them with placement.”

Fontaine said, “Mel Sandler was an amazing teacher, colleague, and mentor. He taught us to think outside the box, to be leaders, and to fight for what is right even when (especially when) it may not be popular.”