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On Gordon Day, 2009 IEEE-USA President
http://www.todaysengineer.org IEEE-USA Today’s Engineer (TE) is available online to IEEE members. Go to www.todaysengineer.org, and under ARCHIVES, click on Career Articles or Policy Articles, to see these career and policy related articles:
Mass Media Fellow Finds the Right Words
Katherine and Gordon Day, on Capitol Hill with Illinois Senators Durbin and Obama, July 2005.
Q: Why did you decide to become an engineer? A: I don’t remember deciding. I grew up on a small farm in one of the most rural parts of Illinois. I’m pretty sure that none of the 50 students in my high school class had ever met an engineer when we graduated, but somehow three of us managed to collect seven engineering degrees.
Q: Electrical engineering is a pretty broad field. What’s your specialty? A: When I was in college, lasers were new toys for many electrical engineers. I spent graduate school building various types and trying to understand how they worked. Shortly after arriving at The National Bureau of Standards, I worked on a new measurement of the speed of light obtained by separately determining the frequency and wavelength of a very stable laser. After that, every new opportunity that came along also involved optics and measurements. Then, I managed the NIST Optoelectronics Division for nine years before retiring.
Q: Tell us about your family. A: Katherine and I recently celebrated our 40th anniversary. She’s a science reference librarian, now retired. Her brother is also an electrical engineer. As a young woman, Katherine was determined that she would not marry one, but she eventually wised up. We have two children — a daughter and a son, and three grandsons, ranging in age from five months to six years.
Q: What is your idea of perfect happiness? A: Spending time with our grandchildren.
Q: What else do you do for fun? A: When we have time, Katherine and I both work on family genealogy. We like to travel. We have stacks of books waiting to be read. And in the past few years I’ve been working on my woodturning skills.
Q: Why do you volunteer for the IEEE? A: Most of my prior IEEE volunteer roles have been in Technical Activities. I worked on publications, then conferences, then Society management, and eventually had the privilege of being a Society President. In each case, the experience made me a better engineer and a more valuable employee.
Q: What is your greatest hope for your year as IEEE-USA President in 2009? A: IEEE-USA is a unique and impressive organization, created and paid for by U.S. members to support their professional interests. I hope that the fresh eyes and ideas I bring to the organization can help it continue to grow in effectiveness. We are in the midst of important national conversations about jobs, energy, the environment, communications, intellectual property, and health care, among others. Our members care deeply about these issues, and we have the expertise to make important contributions.
Q: Anything else you’d like to say to our members? A: Yes. Thank you for giving me the honor and privilege of leading IEEE-USA this year. For the full article, go to http://www.todaysengineer.org.
— Georgia C. Stelluto, IEEE-USA Publishing Manager
2009 Fellows The IEEE-USA 2009 Government Fellows paused from their orientation on Veteran’s Day 2008 to visit the “Lone Solider” statue in downtown Washington, D.C. (left-right): Congressional Fellows Thomas Lee and Ken Lutz and State Department Fellow Tom Tierney.
Maddalena Jackson spent last summer as a science reporter for two reasons. The first was to test a hypothesis she had formulated about applying the engineering mentality to non-engineering problems. The second reason was because she found herself at a loss for words at cruising altitude somewhere over Texas on her way home from Los Angeles.
U.S. Companies Pumping Money into Schools to Augment Government Efforts Aimed at Bolstering STEM Education While Congress prepares a renewed focus on government programs to assist science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, several major American corporations are pumping sizeable amounts of money into schools around the country to provide further support for initiatives to strengthen STEM education.
IP Corner: Using the Internet to Promote Progress in Science and Technology President Obama’s successful use of the Internet to connect with the public during his campaign has left the public wanting more from the modern presidency and the government. The Peer to Patent project is one such initiative that is using the Internet to open up and improve a long-closed government process by harnessing the collective knowledge of Internet users, and making it accessible to patent examiners.
Meet the FCC’s New Chief Technologist Over the next few years, the United States will face tough questions regarding the future of telecommunications, including spectrum sharing, broadband Internet, delivering services to rural areas, and the impact of peer-to-peer networks. One man helping to answer these and other questions is IEEE member: Prof. Jon M. Peha, the FCC’s new chief technologist. — Georgia C. Stelluto,
Photo: Marvin Jones
IEEE-USA Publishing Manager
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