The first female student to study chemical engineering at RPI, Nancy Fitzroy graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1949, and she was recognized worldwide for her work in mechanical engineering.

Fitzroy spent 37 years at GE, where she specialized in heat transfer and fluid flow research for application in nuclear reactor cores, gas turbines, space satellites, and other technologies. A fellow of SWE, she received the 1972 SWE Achievement Award, and in 1986, she became the first woman to head a major professional engineering society in the United States, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

One of the first female helicopter pilots, Fitzroy was inducted into the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame in 1999.