Mary Plumb Blade was an American engineer, director of the Green Camp from 1955 to 1972, and full-time professor of mechanical engineering in the engineering school of The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art from 1946 to 1978.

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in France. The school was built on a radical new model of American higher education based on Cooper's belief that an education "equal to the best technology schools established" should be accessible to those who qualify, independent of their race, religion, sex, wealth or social status, and should be "open and free to all".