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News |
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Prof J. Huang Elected IEEE Fellow,
Class of 2005
Jan 2005
 Prof.
Jie HUANG has been elected IEEE Fellow for the Class
2005. IEEE Fellow membership is conferred by the IEEE
Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary
record of accomplishments, either technical, educational,
or service, in any of the IEEE fields of interest. Last
year, Prof.
Y. S. Xu was also elected as an IEEE Fellow.
IEEE Fellow History
The IEEE (Institute of Electronics
and Electrical Engineers) and its predecessors, the
AIEE (American Institute of Electrical Engineers) and
the IRE (Institute ofRadio Engineers), date back to
1884.
In the 1930's, electronics became
part of the vocabulary of electrical engineering. Electronics
engineers tended to become members of the IRE, but the
applications of electron tube technology became so extensive
that the technical boundaries differentiating the IRE
and the AIEE became difficult to distinguish.
After World War II, the two organizations
became increasingly competitive. Problems of overlap
and duplication of efforts arose, only partially resolved
by joint committees and meetings.
In 1961, the leadership of both
the IRE and the AIEE resolved to seek an end to these
difficulties through consolidation. The next year a
merger plan was formulated and approved and became effective
on 1 January 1963, i.e., AIEE, IRE Merge to form IEEE.
The grade of Fellow first appeared
in the AIEE constitution of 1912. In that year, the
AIEE revised its membership structure and established
the grade of Fellow for those engineers who had demonstrated
outstanding proficiency and had achieved distinction
in their profession. Potential Fellows had to be at
least thirty-two years of age, with a minimum of ten
years experience. When the IRE established its Fellow
grade in 1914, the requirements were clearly modeled
on those of the AIEE. Much of the wording in the relevant
sections of the IRE constitution is identical to the
corresponding wording in the AIEE constitution.
For the first several years after
the establishment of the Fellow grade, both the AIEE
and the IRE allowed Members to make direct application
for transfer to Fellow. In both cases, applications
had to be accompanied by references from five existing
Fellows, and required the approval of the Board of Directors.
In 1939, the IRE modified its procedure to make admission
or transfer to the Fellow grade possible only by direct
invitation of the Board of Directors, a policy it maintained
until the merger in 1963. In 1938, the AIEE modified
its constitution to provide that 'Applications to the
grade of Fellow shall result only from a proposal of
five Members or Fellows.' In 1951, the AIEE prohibited
applications for Fellow grade altogether, and adopted
a policy of direct invitation similar to that of the
IRE.
As noted above, numerous electrical
engineers were members of both the AIEE and the IRE,
and many of these became Fellows of both organizations.
When the two institutes merged in 1963, all AIEE and
IRE Fellows automatically became Fellows of the IEEE.
In 1942, the IRE had begun to issue citations to new
Fellows, briefly describing their accomplishments. The
AIEE followed suit in 1952, and the IEEE continued the
practice after the merger.
The total number selected Fellow
members in any one year do not exceed one-tenth percent
of the total voting Institute membership.
(Source: www.ieee.org)
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