John Bertucci

2022 Founders Medal for Outstanding Service and Exceptional Achievement

Bio

Claire and John Bertucci have a passion for Carnegie Mellon University and for making the world a better place.

They met as CMU students in the 1960s. Claire graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business from Margaret Morrison Carnegie College while John completed a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering and a master’s degree in industrial administration. After graduation and career experience in semiconductor manufacturing and management consulting, John joined MKS Instruments, a small process control instrumentation company in 1970. After purchasing MKS in 1974, John guided the growth and international expansion of the company as CEO and chairman. MKS became a public company in 1999 (MKSI). John retired as chairman in 2020 and now serves as chairman emeritus.

That success fueled the couple’s passion for giving back. Unassuming philanthropists, they focus their efforts on areas where they can make the greatest impact, specifically education, health care and the arts. At CMU, they funded the Claire and John Bertucci Nanotechnology Laboratory. Thanks to Claire and John’s vision, the “Nanofab” houses more than 100 of the most sophisticated processing and characterization tools, which are maintained by highly qualified technical staff members, and is responsible for more than $10 million each year in cutting-edge research. This gift was inspired in part by Claire’s father, Dr. Arthur C. Ruge, who was a 1925 Carnegie Institute of Technology graduate and a professor of civil engineering at MIT. He invented the bonded wire strain gauge that was instrumental in helping the United States win World War II and forever changed how objects are weighed, stress-tested and designed. The Arthur C. Ruge Atrium in Scott Hall is named in his honor.

In the College of Engineering, they established the Claire and John Bertucci Fellowship in Engineering, which has supported 184 fellows since 2008, and the John and Claire Bertucci Distinguished Professorship in Engineering. They also started the Claire Ruge Bertucci and John R. Bertucci Endowed Presidential Scholarship, a four-year scholarship received by three students since 2017.

At Massachusetts General Hospital, they named the Claire and John Bertucci Center for Genitourinary Cancers, one of the largest, most renowned centers in New England for bladder, kidney, prostate and other genitourinary cancers. They also named an endowed chair in thyroid surgical oncology at Harvard Medical School and another in otolaryngology — head and neck surgery at Mass Eye and Ear. Their investment in health care will fuel research and enrich patients' lives for generations.

John is an emeritus trustee on the CMU Board of Trustees with more than 20 years of service, and he is volunteer leader in the College of Engineering. He currently serves on the College of Engineering Dean’s Advocacy Council. He has served on numerous advisory councils and boards, including the Mechanical Engineering Advisory Board, Materials Science and Engineering Advisory Board, Carnegie Institute of Technology Advisory Board, CIT Boston Advisory Council, and the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems Advisory Board. Claire has served as Boston clan secretary, a reunion volunteer, leading efforts to connect alumni in her class with the university and each other.

Outside of Carnegie Mellon, Claire and John support many organizations in their Massachusetts community. John serves on the boards of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the Lexington Historical Society while Claire is actively involved in these and has served as treasurer of the Lexington Field and Garden Club and president of the Dartmouth Women's Club of Boston.