Recognition follows decades of support for electrical engineering education at his alma mater
August 26, 2026
For RPI alumnus Doug Mercer ’77, helping prepare the next generation of electrical engineers to excel in the workforce has been a personal crusade for decades. With his most recent donation to RPI’s Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering (ECSE), he is providing the momentum needed to advance that mission for generations to come.
In June 2026, Mercer donated nearly $27 million to support the department where he earned his Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering. A graduate of RPI’s Class of 1977, Mercer spent his career leading technological advances at Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) and is currently a Fellow Emeritus. In recognition of his inspirational support for ECSE, the department will be renamed the Douglas A. Mercer ’77 Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering.
“For nearly 120 years, electrical engineering has been a core component of RPI’s identity,” said RPI President Martin A. Schmidt ’81, Ph.D. “Pioneering alumni have graduated from the department and gone on to develop groundbreaking technologies like the microprocessor, digital camera, insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), and the PC graphics processor. As a pioneer in analog-digital conversion, Doug Mercer ’77 has left his own powerful impact on the field — and with this extraordinary donation, he’s ensuring that ECSE has the resources needed to continue equipping students for revolutionary discoveries long into the future.”
The gift will support hands-on learning throughout the ECSE curriculum and invest in faculty positions. It builds on the significant investment Mercer has already made in the department, with previous gifts funding RPI’s Mercer XLab, a space located in the Johnson Engineering Center that has provided hands-on education to students for more than a decade. A deep believer in experiential learning and the impact it has on students’ education, Mercer has donated the $27 million to further integrate the Mercer XLab into ECSE, while providing funding for faculty positions.
“Doug Mercer ’77 has long invested his resources, time, experience, and ideas in ECSE, supporting student design and exploration, advising the department, and championing learning by building,” said Alhussein Abouzeid, head of the Douglas A. Mercer ’77 Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering. “Our students know him as an engineer and inventor who takes a genuine interest in their work and challenges them to turn ideas into something real. His gift carries that spirit across the department by expanding opportunities for students to discover, create, and innovate, and for faculty to teach, invent, and lead at the frontiers of their fields.”
A native of Saratoga Springs, New York, Mercer has been passionate about electrical engineering since the fourth grade. He followed that passion to RPI, and after graduating, joined ADI. Mercer went on to build a career in the linear IC industry, helping design and develop high resolution and high-speed data converter products. He contributed to over 30 commercial products, with industry firsts such as the first single supply microprocessor compatible DAC. Mercer holds 13 patents and was appointed to the position of ADI Fellow in 1995.
“Doug Mercer is a quintessential engineer, inventor, and visionary whose pioneering work at the interface of the analog and digital worlds has helped shape the technologies that power modern life” said Shekhar Garde, Thomas R. Farino, Jr. ’67 and Patricia E. Farino Dean of Engineering. “Doug’s transformative gift is a testament to his unwavering belief in learning by doing and in the power of an RPI education.”
In reflecting on his journey and his aspirations for RPI students, Mercer shared some simple advice: “find your passion, maintain your curiosity, and remember the fundamentals.”