Amanda Davis

5 min read William RatcliffFormer IEEE Region 3 directorLife senior member, 80; died 20 June Ratcliff was the 2008–2009 director of IEEE Region 3 (Southeastern United States). An active IEEE volunteer, he led efforts to change the IEEE Regional Activities board to the IEEE Member and Geographic Activities board. He also helped develop and launch the IEEE MOVE (Mobile Outreach using Volunteer Engagement) program. The three vehicles in the IEEE-USA initiative provide U.S. communities with

3 min read Arthur Winston, 2004 IEEE president, died on 27 December at the age of 94. Arthur Winston, 2004 IEEE president, died on 27 December at the age of 94. Winston was an electrical engineering professor at two Boston-area universities: Northeastern and Tufts. He cofounded the latter’s Gordon Institute, a leadership-focused engineering school. Among the students and colleagues whose careers he helped shape is IEEE Fellow Karen Panetta, dean of graduate engineering education at

2 min read During the past 13 years, the IEEE Power & Energy Society (PES) has awarded US $4.6 million in scholarships to undergraduate students in North America studying power engineering as part of its Scholarship Plus Initiative. PES has increased the scholarship amount this year to $10,000, up from $7,000. Recipients, who do not have to be IEEE student members, are eligible to receive up to three years of financial support but must reapply

31 Dec 2024 3 min read IEEE Fellow Emerson Pugh and his wife Betsy at the 2024 IEEE Honors Ceremony in Boston. Emerson Pugh Emerson W. Pugh, 1989 IEEE president, died on 8 December at the age of 95. The IEEE Fellow served as president of the IEEE Foundation from 2000 to 2004. “Emerson Pugh was one of the very first IEEE volunteers I met when I joined the IEEE staff in 1997,” says Karen

4 min read Jean Sammet helped develop programming languages Cobol and Formac. Ben Shneiderman Jean Sammet rarely let anything get in the way of her professional goals. As a young student, she was barred from attending prestigious all-boys schools, so she pursued her love of mathematics at the best institutions she could find that were open to girls and women. Following her college graduation, she became one of the first programmers at Sperry, an electronics

2 min read Gerard Foschini [middle] with his children, Charles J. Foschini and Darlene Foschini-Field at the 2018 Stevens University Esteemed Alumni Awards held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City. Sanjai Rambhadjan IEEE Life Fellow Gerard J. “Jerry” Foschini, a Bell Labs researcher for more than 50 years, died on 17 September, 2023, at the age of 83. Foschini made groundbreaking contributions to the field of wireless communications that improved the quality of

6 min read Robert Dennard, the inventorof Dynamic RAM. Fred Holland Robert Dennard Inventor of Dynamic RAM Fellow, 91; died 23 April In 1967 Dennard invented what is known as DRAM—a type of random-access semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell consisting of a tiny capacitor and transistor. Before his invention, RAM required bulky, power-hungry components that were expensive to produce. His breakthrough paved the way for inexpensive, high-density, and

4 min read Edith Clarke played a critical role in the rapid expansion of the North American electric grid during the 1920s and ’30s. Science History Images/Alamy Edith Clarke was a powerhouse in practically every sense of the word. From the start of her career at General Electric in 1922, she was determined to develop stable, more reliable power grids. And Clarke succeeded, playing a critical role in the rapid expansion of the North American

8 min read IEEE Life Fellow Herbert Kroemer received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing semiconductor heterostructures for high-speed and opto-electronics. Henrik Montgomery/AFP/Getty Images Herbert Kroemer Nobel Laureate Life Fellow, 95; died 8 March Kroemer, a pioneering physicist, is a Nobel laureate, receiving the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics for developing semiconductor heterostructures for high-speed and opto-electronics. The devices laid the foundation for the modern era of microchips, computers, and information technology. Heterostructures