News Archive in a Single Page (2016 and Earlier)

1. IEEE ISAF/ECAPD/PFM 2016 Women in Engineering event

An IEEE Women in Engineering event was held on Tuesday August 23^rd as part of the IEEE ISAF/ECAPD/PCM 2016 conference in Darmstadt, Germany. The WIE event was organized locally by Barbara Kaeswurm and Gisela Volzke. It attracted an audience of approximately 50 attendees, and featured a panel discussion led by Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb. Panel members included the conference plenary speakers Elizabeth Dickey, Beatriz Noheda, Jing-Feng Li, and Susan Trolier-McKinstry. The discussion focused on the difficulties that are commonly met by researchers in the early stage of their careers as they transition to become independent scientists. The event started with the panel speakers giving advice for young researchers based on their personal experience. Then the panel shared anecdotes from their early careers This was followed by a question and answer session which gave members of the audience the opportunity to discuss their experiences with the panel. The event provided a lively group discussion between the early-career and experienced researchers.

2. New AdCom Officers in 2017

The following individuals have been appointed as New AdCom Officers in 2017. We wish them every success in their new responsibilities.

Prof. Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb: Chair of Strategic Planning

Dr. Ayache Bouakaz: Vice-President for Symposia

Prof. Enrico Rubiola: Chair of an Ad Hoc Committee to Revise the IEEE Std 1139-2008

Dr. Aaron Partridge: Vice-President of Frequency Control

Prof. Matteo Rinaldi: Chair of Publicity

3. UFFC AdCom Officers stepping down from their posts at end of 2016

We sincerely thank the following individuals for their excellent service to the UFFC Society. Their contributions have added enormously to the success and stature of our society.

Dr. Mike Driscoll: Vice-President of Frequency Control

Dr. Jackie Hines: Chair of Strategic Planning

Dr. Wan-Thai Hsu: Chair of Publicity

Dr. Clemens Ruppel: Vice-President for Symposia

4. Manuscripts and Media from 2016 IUS

Final Manuscripts and Audio Visual Media from the 2016 International Ultrasonics Symposium Available

Byline : Steven Freear, IUS Publication Chair

The 2016 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) manuscripts have been available at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library since November 3, 2016. This very rapid availability (within only 6 weeks of the conference closing date) provides maximum benefit from this record of the IUS conference to conference participants and other IEEE UFFC members. The manuscripts have also been catalogued in Web of Science and Scopus since mid December 2016.

If you haven't yet had a chance to look up papers from your favorite presentations at the conference or if you missed a talk, for which authors agreed slides and audio can be downloaded from the "ultimedia" tab, you may want to take a minute to browse through the proceedings at the IEEE Xplore Digital Library:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=7589760

You will need an IEEE Xplore password (available to all IEEE UFFC members) or have access to the site via your institutional subscriptions.

5. News Page Feature

A new feature has been added to the News Page. It is called "Important New Research". It will contain descriptions of noteworthy current research in the fields of interest of the UFFC-S.

(Note: The ¡®Important New Research¡¯ feature has now been discontinued.)

6. Leslie Eric Cross (1929 ¨C 2016)

We sadly report the passing of Prof. L. Eric Cross on 29 December 2016. Eric was one of the most important scientists in the area of ferroelectricity since the field' inception. He was a good friend and a mentor to many of us. He will be sorely missed. Read more below ...

L. Eric Cross (1923-2016) passed away peacefully on the 29th of December. He was an Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering, Penn State, a member of the US National Academy of Engineering, and a founding member of the Penn State Materials Research Laboratory. He was a world-leader in the field of ferroelectrics from a fundamental perspective, as an inventor of new characterization techniques, and in materials applications. He was beloved for his intelligence, vision, wit and humanity, as well as the charm with which he shared his fascination with ferroelectrics and his newest ideas. He was also an excellent mentor, and many of his students and postdoctoral researchers went on to scientific leadership position themselves.

He came to the field of ferroelectricity in its infancy, and this to the objection of his advisor A. F. Stoner, "who referred to it as a trivial lattice phenomenon!" Stoner was famed for his contributions to magnetism. World War II interrupted Cross's undergraduate education at Leeds University (UK). During the war, he worked for the British Admiralty on a program using high frequency direction finding to track German U-boats, which ultimately allowed convoys to cross the Atlantic unharmed. Just two weeks after his transfer to that assignment, the boat that Cross previously served on was sunk in Atlantic, with no survivors. Ever after, Prof. Cross thought of himself as a lucky man. He was very proud of his long association with the Department of Defense and particularly the U.S. Navy, which supported much of his work in the field of sonar undersea transducers. He and his colleagues made many other societal contributions such as the piezoelectric transducer used in almost all modern medical ultrasound machines.

During his career, Professor Cross was honored by many professional organizations. He was a Fellow of the Materials Research Society, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America, the American Ceramics Society, and IEEE. In 1983, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for his contributions to the development of electroceramic, dielectric, and piezoelectric materials. He was also the 2010 recipient of the Von Hippel award of the Materials Research Society, its highest honor. Cross joined Penn State as a senior research associate in 1961, rose through the ranks, and in 1985, was named Evan Pugh Professor of Electrical Engineering; an Evan Pugh Professorship is the highest distinction that the University can bestow on a faculty member. He is the author or coauthor of more than 850 refereed papers; he held 20 patents, and published a comprehensive text book, "Domains in Ferroic Crystals and Thin Films" At Penn State he mentored > 50 graduate students from across the world - including Prof. Yao Xi: the first Chinese Ph.D. (1982) educated in the US following the cultural revolution.

He will be sadly missed by all that knew him and worked with him. He shared his ideas freely with everyone that he met at scientific conferences, from graduate students to senior leaders in the field. He and his family, (wife Priscilla (Cilla) - a reluctant but gracious member of the ferroelectrics community by osmosis, and children Peter, Matthew, Daniel, Rachel, and Elizabeth) opened their home to generations of students and colleagues.

Very nice memories of the scholar, passion and personality of Professor Cross can be appreciated at https://ethw.org/Oral-History:L._Eric_Cross.

7. UFFC-S Members Elevated 2017 IEEE Fellows

Zuo-Guang Ye

Robert Lutwak

(Posted 8 December 2016)

8. In Memoriam

Thrygve Meeker (1929-2016)

Gernot M. R. Winkler (1922-2016)

William H. Horton (1921-2016)

Andre Clairon ( -2016)

Jan Fousek (1930-2016)

Franz Seifert (1933-2016)

9. 2nd 2016 IEEE UFFC-S AdCom meeting

The IEEE UFFC-S Administrative Committee, AdCom, met in Tours, France on September 17, 2016.

Many important points were covered to coordinate and optimize the operation of the society. The points highlighted by IEEE UFFC-S president, Clark Nguyen, were focused on achievements of the year past and goals to pursue. Student support extended for the NIST Time & Frequency Seminar allowed nine students to participate. Geoff Brennecka has been named new Chair of the Education Committee to determine means to best get tutorial videos on-line for sharing with the membership. Possible plans for a membership "awards" system were discussed. The integration of videotaping of symposium lectures into our conferences was recognized as globally successful. Other key issues that Clark Nguyen underlined included recommendations for conference organizers, the on-going work to up-date our bylaws and the initiative to upgrade the IEEE UFFC-S website.

In 2016, several important awards have been bestowed to recognize major achievements in our field. The Outstanding Paper Award for a paper published in the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control in 2015 was attributed for "4-D Ultrafast Shear-Wave Imaging" nbsp;by Jean-Luc Gennisson, Jean  Provost, Thomas Deffieux, Clement Papadacci, Marion  Imbault, Mathieu Pernot, and  Mickael Tanter.  It was noted that, at the IFCS in May 2016, David W. Allan was awarded the 2016 UFFC Achievement Award. New UFFC Distinguished Lecturers for January 2017 to June 2018 were announced to be David Howe and Katherine W. Ferrara.  Jian-yu Lu was cited as the recipient of the UFFC Distinguished Service Award.   The IEEE has approved the creation of a new award, the Ferroelectrics Robert E. Newnham Achievement Award. Professor Ahmad Safari was named AdCom emeritus. Many other awards and events marked the International Ultrasonics Symposium in Tours, France. 

The next AdCom meeting will be held on May 6, 2017 in Atlanta, GA, USA.

10. 2016 IEEE IUS in Tours, France(Contributed by Sandy Cochran, Ultrasonics Newsletter Editor)

Delegates welcomed to the 2016 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) in Tours, France, will undoubtedly have planned their travel carefully, with many arriving on the Train at Grande Vitesse from Paris, but they may not have spared a thought for their intrepid Publications Chair, Steve Freear. With an important cycle race a few weeks after the symposium, Steve made the decision to travel from the UK by train...and bicycle. Braving delays, cancellations and floods, he finally arrived to a warm welcome in Tours.

Steve Freear, Publications Chair, happily endures appalling conditions on his bicycle in his determination to reach IUS 2016 in Tours

The General Chair of the Symposium was Ayache Bouakaz, Universite de Tours, France, who hosted more than 1,300 delegates from more than 50 different countries at the VINCI Centre Internationale de Congres de Tours. With 1190 abstracts submitted, the Technical Program Committee chaired by Ton van der Steen, worked hard to configure the three-day program running from Monday to Wednesday. This had seven parallel sessions, including 18 invited speakers and three clinical speakers, as well as encompassing about 150 posters every day. As usual, this program provided a perfect opportunity to learn about the latest advances in medical ultrasound, ultrasonic non-destructive evaluation, industrial ultrasonics, physical acoustics, microacoustics and ultrasonic transducers and materials.

Ayache Bouakaz, General Chair, addresses the delegates at the Welcome Reception in the Hotel de Ville de Tours

Short Courses Twelve short courses were delivered on Sunday, 18th September, with the total number attending exceeding 300 delegates. The program was organised very effectively by Nico de Jong, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Lori Bridal, Laboratoire d'Imagerie Biomedicale, Paris, France. Many important topics were covered by leading experts in the field, including "Ultrasound Therapy", addressed by Kullervo Hynynen, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada, and "CMUT: Theory, Fabrication and Applications", addressed by Pierre Khuri-Yakub, Stanford University, USA, Omer Oralkan, NCSU, USA, and Mario Kupnik, TU Darmstadt, Germany.

Plenary Session and Awards Ayache Bouakaz opened the plenary session with a welcome address to the delegates, followed by the awards ceremony. The 2016 Ultrasonics Early Career Investigator award went to Alfred Yu, University of Waterloo, Canada, for his outstanding work in ultrasound flow imaging and therapeutic ultrasound biophysics. Vincent Laude, FEMTO-ST, CNRS, Besancon, France, was the very worthy recipient of the Carl Hellmuth Hertz Ultrasonics Award for his contributions to the physics of phononic crystals and of the interaction of light and sound. Finally, Jim Miller was given the Rayleigh Award for sustained, high impact research in ultrasonic tissue characterization and quantitative echocardiography. Not only is Jim a very highly distinguished academic, but his research has been incorporated into commercial echocardiographic imagers used on patients around the world.

Jim Miller (left), Vincent Laude (centre), and Alfred Yu (right), award recipients in 2016.

The symposium was also the occasion on which two UFFC Society awards were presented. Jian Yu Lu received the Distinguished Service Award for his work as the President of UFFC-S and Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control, and for many contributions to symposium organisation. Mickael Tanter accepted the 2015 UFFC-S Outstanding Paper Award with his team, comprising Jean-Luc Gennisson, Jean Provost, Thomas Deffieux, Clement Papadacci, Marion Imbault and Mathieu Pernot, for their paper on "4-D Ultrafast Shear-Wave Imaging", describing a technique that paves the way for real-time 3-D shear wave elastography.

Mickael Tanter (3rd left) and his team accept the 2015 UFFC-S Outstanding Paper Award, flanked by Jan Brown, Chair of the Awards Committee (left) and Clark Nguyen, UFFC-S President (right)

The plenary presentation was given by Benedicte Palazzo-Bertholon and Jean-Christophe Valiere and was entitled "Archaeology of the Sound through the Acoustic Pot Devices in Medieval and Renaissance Buildings: an Exploration of the Instigator's Aim". Dr Palazzo-Bertholon and Dr Valiere took the audience into a mediaeval world in which church architects and builders embedded ceramic pots within certain walls to correct their acoustic properties according to the needs of the singing of the times. A case study was presented from the Cathedrale de Notre-Dame de Noyon, Picardy, France, with sound recordings allowing conference delegates to experience the effects themselves.

Xiao Zhang, North Carolina State University, has an engrossed audience for his entry in the Student Paper Competition

Technical Program The adoption of a program with seven parallel oral sessions allowed the delegates an excellent opportunity to learn about the latest developments in a wide range of topics. The Student Paper Competition posters were displayed throughout the whole conference in a highly advantageous position allowing delegates ample time to view them and to discuss their contents with the students. The posters for each day were displayed throughout the day's sessions, with a great deal of discussion at the morning and afternoon breaks.

An innovation introduced for the first time in 2016 was the IUS Plane Wave Imaging Challenge. In response to the difficulty in comparing techniques for high frame-rate plane wave imaging, a challenge was set to carry out such imaging on datasets provided to the competitors. The results were evaluated numerically, with the top three participants in several different categories receiving certificates and prizes. With approximately 30 participants and more than 150 people attending the challenge session, this innovation was deemed a success, to be followed up again in future.

A still further innovation was a Student-Industry Networking event. Motivated by the desire to enhance the period during which members of the ultrasonics community remain attached to it, the event aimed to make known to students the vast job opportunities that are available and to allow students to present themselves to potential employers. 25 students were each given three minutes for this part of the event, with the number of employers limited to 50. The formal presentations were followed by informal networking for direct contact between students and employers.

Another, more long-standing feature of the symposia is the Student Paper Competition. This year's entry of 23 papers covered a huge range of topics, from "The effect of ultrafast imaging on shear wave observations" to "High temperature static strain microwave acoustic sensor" and the judges had many difficult decisions to make. Finally, the winners, shown below (L-R), were selected as Etienne Coffy, Ryan Jones, Jinwook Kim, Anin Maskay, Elodie Tiran and Takashi Kogai.

Students and employers' representatives mingle for discussion after the formal presentations at the Student-Industry Networking event

The Student Paper Competition winners meet Ton van der Steen, Technical Chair (second right) and Ayache Bouakaz, General Chair (right)

Sponsors and Exhibition UFFC-S is always grateful for the support it gains from its sponsors. This year Vermon and Verasonics were Gold Sponsors and PZ Flex and Probe Hunter were Bronze Sponsors. In 2016, we had more than 20 other organisations also exhibiting their products, with coffee available and the posters nearby, creating a lively atmosphere for delegates looking to purchase relevant items or to gauge industry interest in their research.

There was a buzz around the exhibition, with plenty of delegates on hand to keep the exhibitors busy

Social Events and Associated Committees and Meetings The IUS symposia are always associated with glittering social events, the flagships being the Welcome Reception and the Banquet. This year, the Reception took place in the evening of Monday, 19th September, in the Hotel de Ville de Tours, just a short walk from the VINCI convention centre. Following well-received speeches in a grand hall, delegates enjoyed food, drink and the opportunity to make new acquaintances and to renew those established previously. The Banquet took place in similarly distinguished surroundings, in La Grange de Meslay, a fortified farm in the beautiful French countryside a 15-minute bus ride from Tours. Associated with the Abbey of Marmoutier, the Grange was originally built by Hugues des Roches, who was abbot from 1210 to 1227. Damaged by Scottish soldiers in 1422, it was rebuilt ten years later and, despite suffering some further depredations, this was the form enjoyed by the IUS delegates for their Banquet and entertainment.

Delegates enjoy entertainment at the Welcome Reception in the magnificent Hotel de ville de Tours

Delegates prepare to enter the historic barn of the 13th Century Grange de Meslay for the Banquet

Along with its social events and technical program, the IUS also hosts several working meetings and other social gatherings. This year, the UFFS-S AdCom meeting took place on Saturday, 17th September, followed by a visit to the Chateau d'Amboise, at which dinner was served. The UFFC-S UltraCom was held the evening of Sunday, 18th September, with Jafar Saniie chairing an interesting meeting and ensuring none of his committee were left in the VINCI centre when it was locked up for the night. Additionally, the Women in Engineering Meeting took place just before the Welcome Reception on Monday Evening and the President's Reception for Students, with breakfast, early on Tuesday, 20th September.

IUS 2017 Washington, DC, USA The last formal event of the conference was a meeting of the Technical Program Committee at which Keith Wear presented his plans for IUS 2017. This will be held from September 5th-9th, 2017, at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, USA. With a particularly early start, delegates are encouraged to consider making their decisions to attend soon and should note that the deadline for the submission of the four-page papers will be in the August holiday season.

(Posted 21 November 2017)

11. IEEE UFFC-S Awards: Ferroelectrics(contributed by Andrei Kholkin)

Ferroelectrics awards were given at the 2016 IEEE UFFC Symposium. Jon F. Ihlefeld received the Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award, Jurgen Rodel received the Ferroelectrics Recognition Award and Susan Trolier-McKinstry received the Robert E. Newnham Ferroelectrics Award.

IEEE UFFC Society - Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award

The 2016 Award Recipient is Dr. Jon F. Ihlefeld, Sandia National Laboratories

"for significantly advancing the processing and integration science of thin film ferroelectrics for practical applications"

IEEE UFFC Society - Ferroelectrics Recognition Award

The 2016 Award Recipient is Prof. Dr. Jurgen Rodel, Technical University of Darmstadt

"for his significant contributions to the research and development of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics and promotion of international collaboration"

IEEE UFFC Robert E. Newnham Ferroelectrics Award

The 2016 Award Recipient is Prof. Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry, Pennsylvania State University

"for her fundamental contributions and scientific leadership in structure-property relations of piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials, resulting in tremendous impact in the discipline"

(Posted 23 September 2016)

12. Submission to Publication for IEEE Transactions on UFFC is ever becoming more efficient (Contributed by Steven Freear)

13. Newly Elected IEEE UFFC-S AdCom Members for 2017-2019 (Contributed by Jian-yu Lu)

From an excellent list of candidates representing all three major technical areas of UFFC-S, four new AdCom members have been elected for a three-year term (2017-2019) to serve the UFFC society.

Congratulations and welcome to:

• Ultrasonics
  Paul Reynolds
• Ferroelectrics
  Jacob L. Jones
• Frequency Control
  Dana Weinstein
• IEEE Regions 8-10 (Europe, Latin America, and Asia and Pacific)
  Barbara Malic
  (Ferroelectrics area)

(Posted 22 September 2016)

14. 2016 IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics (Contributed by Xiaoli TAN, ISAF Newsletter Editor)

August 21-25 2016, the IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics was jointly held with the European Conference on Applications of Polar Dielectrics and the Workshop on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy in Darmstadt, Germany.

The conference attracted 497 participants (including 167 students) from 41 countries on 6 continents. The general co-chairs, Prof. Jurgen Rodel and Prof. Kyle Webber welcomed delegates at the opening session. With support from the IEEE UFFC-S, JECS (Journal of European Ceramic Society) Trust, and DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) organizers were able to provide funds contributing to travel for 57 students (37 international and 20 European) and 27 early-stage researchers.

There were 5 plenary talks, 307 oral presentations and 202 posters (including 32 posters in the student poster competition). Social and networking events included the Early Stage Researcher Mixer, the Women in Engineering Panel Discussion, the Welcome Reception, the Conference Banquet, and a dinner cruise on Rhine River. The Early Stage Researcher Mixer attracted a record number of 140 participants, and the Welcome Reception was held in the historical Herrngarten.

The winning papers in The Student Poster Competition were:

Mechanistic insight into varistor piezotronics using doped ZnO bicrystals - Peter Keil, Technische Universitat Darmstadt.

Solid-state cooler as an array of multifunctional cantilevers: simulation & experiment - Andraz Bradesko, Jozef Stefen Institute.

Effect of texturing on the polarization switching Dynamics in ferroelectric ceramics - Guillaume Nataf, CEA Saclay.

Effect of texturing on the polarization switching dynamics in ferroelectric ceramics - Jan Schultheis, Technische Universitat Darmstadt.

Epitaxy, optical and acoustical properties of X-, Y-, and Z-axis oriented LiNbO3 thin films on sapphire substrates - Stefania Oliveri, Institute FEMTOHST.

Chemical solution deposition and characterization of (Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃-(Bi_0.5K_0.5)TiO₃-Bi(Zn_0.5Ti_0.5)O₃ thin films - Ashley Mason, Oregon State University. The UFFC-ISAF Photo/Illustration Competition was also held for the first time to stimulate and attract student participation and involvement with the society. The gold prize winner was Lakesh Rana from the University of Delhi, India for a scanning electron microscopy image titled "Piezo Skyline."

Three important society awards were bestowed at the conference banquet to recognize significant professional achievements. The IEEE UFFC Society Ferroelectrics Recognition Award is presented annually to honor members of the Society for outstanding achievements in their scientific work as well as in promoting the ferroelectrics community. The 2016 winner was Professor Jurgen Rodel from Technische Universitat Darmstadt for "his significant contributions to the research and development of lead-free piezoelectric ceramics and promotion of international collaboration."

The Robert Newnham Ferroelectrics Award honors investigators in the field of dielectric, piezoelectric and ferroic materials that have contributed significantly to the understanding of structure-property relations. It was awarded to Professor Susan Trolier-McKinstry for "her fundamental contributions and scientific leadership in structure-property relations of piezoelectric and ferroelectric materials, resulting in tremendous impact in the discipline".

The Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award recognizes scientists/engineers, 40 years of age or younger, for their contributions to fundamental research, integration, application or education in Ferroelectrics. It was given to Dr. Jon Ihlefeld for "significantly advancing the processing and integration science of thin film ferroelectrics for practical applications".

(Posted 23 September 2016)

15. Student Activities at ISAF/ECAPD/PFM 2016 (Contributed by Yumei Wang, Junior Student Representative)

Bringing along the newest ideas, students from all over the world attended the 2016 Joint IEEE International Symposium on the Applications of Ferroelectrics, the European Conference on Applications of Polar Dielectrics, and Workshop on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy (ISAF/ECAPD/PFM) in Darmstadt, Germany from August 21-25, 2016. During the conference, students presented their research results and shared technical skills with their peers on a wide range of topics on the processing, characterization, and applications of dielectrics, pyroelectrics, piezoelectrics, and ferroelectrics. The UFFC Society promoted this event and provided great support to students to help them have a better experience in the conference.

Student Travel Awards. The UFFC-S, together with the JECS (Journal of European Ceramic Society) Trust, and the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), provided increased travel support grants to both student members and early stage researchers. This helped talented students and early stage researchers to have an opportunity to share their work with other researchers in this field.

Early Stage Researcher Get-Together. Undergraduates, graduate students, and early stage researchers from countries and universities throughout the world convened on Sunday, August 21st in one of the city's breweries. This event gave students an opportunity to mingle and network with other participants in the field and become familiar with Darmstadt.

The early stage get-together brought students from across world together in Darmstadt.

UFFC/ISAF Photo/Illustration Competition. The IEEE-UFFC's student representatives started a new photo competition at ISAF that encouraged students to submit artistic photos and illustrations incorporating ferroelectric themes. Three winners were selected by the UFFC Adcom student representatives to receive the Gold, Silver, and Bronze prizes. The winners are Lokesh Rana (University of Delhi, India), Reema Gupta (University of Delhi, India) and Jinyan Zhao (Xi'an Jiaotong University, China). Congratulations!

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners of the ISAF Best Photo Competition.

IEEE-UFFC President Clark Nguyen with students during the ISAF Banquet

Student Poster Competition. The Student Poster Competition was held to represent a prestigious recognition of the students' achievements in ISAF, PFM, and ECAPD. Thirty-three student posters were selected to be the finalists and 12 students won the best student poster competition (6 for IEEE-UFFC and 6 for JECS Trust).

The IEEE UFFC best student poster winners were:

1. Peter Keil ("Mechanistic insight into varistor piezotronics using doped ZnO bicrystals")
2. Andraz Bradesko ("SolidHstate cooler as an array of multifunctional cantilevers: simulation & experiment")
3. Guillaume Nataf ("Functional polar domain walls in ferroelastic calcium titanate")
4. Jan Schultheis ("Effect of texturing on the polarization switching dynamics in ferroelectric ceramics")
5. Stefania Oliveri ("Epitaxy, optical and acoustical properties of X-, Y-, and Z-axis oriented LiNbO₃ thin films on sapphire substrates")
6. Ashley Mason ("Chemical solution deposition and characterization of (Bi_0.5Na_0.5)TiO₃-(Bi_0.5K_0.5)TiO₃-Bi(Zn_0.5Ti_0.5)O₃ thin films")

The JECS Trust best student poster winners were:

1. Ady Suwardi ("Enhanced Ferroelectricity in (Ba_0.6Sr_0.4TiO₃)_1-x - (Sm₂O₃)_x Vertically-aligned Nanocomposite Thin Films")
2. Ruben Khachaturyan ("Polarization switching kinetics in PZT ceramics containing oriented anisotropic pores")
3. Young Hwan Lee ("Examination on the effects of various sputter deposition conditions on ferroelectric Hf_0.5Zr_0.5O₂ films")
4. Hyeokmin Choe ("Time-resolved reciprocal space mapping of Na_0.5Bi_0.5TiO₃ single crystal under an alternative electric field")
5. Zeng Luo ("Growth and Characterization of High-Curie-temperature Ferroelectric Single Crystals of (1-x)BiScO₃-0.05Pb(Cd_1/3Nb_2/3)O₃-xPbTiO₃ Ternary Solid Solution")
6. Florian Weyland ("Criticality: Boost of piezoelectric and electrocaloric properties")

Congratulations to all of the winners!

(Posted 23 September 2016)

16. WIE Event at 2016 IFCS

17. Early Ferroelectricity History

18. Photo Highlights from the 2016 International Frequency Control Symposium

19. IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology

20. 2016 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (IFCS) Highlights

The 2016 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (IFCS) was held at the historic Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana, US, from May 9-12. The IEEE UFFC Society President, Prof. Clark Nguyen, and General Chair, Dr. Lute Maleki, welcomed participants to this exciting 70th Anniversary meeting to exchange through 110 lectures (28 invited), 145 posters and other events with a special New Orleans' style. A wine glass marked with the IFCS logo was given to all attendees as a special souvenir.

Prof. Joseph Taylor

Among the highlights was the plenary presentation "Reflections on an Astrophysical Clock-Comparison Experiment" by Nobel Laureate, Joseph Taylor. Prof. Taylor received the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physics - for the discovery of a new type of pulsar, a discovery that has opened up new possibilities for the study of gravitation. His talk introduced the details of the study on Pulsars with activities sometimes described as nature' most precise clocks. His clock-comparison experiment firmly established the existence of gravitational waves as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Memorials were given to honor Michael Mirarchi (1922-2015), Andre Clairon (1947-2015), and Gernot Winkler (1922-2016).

A special luncheon session event titled "Career Opportunities for Postdocs and Students" was arranged for students and young members of the IFCS community. Representatives from government labs, university, and industry discussed career opportunities in their respective institutions in a panel setting.

The President's Reception was hosted by Prof. Clark Nguyen, IEEE UFFC President to thank organizers of the 2016 IFCS.

Student paper competition winners were announced during the Exhibitor's Reception.

The Women in Engineering event was held immediately prior to the symposium banquet to provide networking opportunities.

The 2016 IEEE UFFC Achievement Award recipient is David Allan for his seminal work to the UFFC community regarding time determination, time prediction, time dissemination, and timekeeping. The widely-used Allan variance, a measure of frequency stability in clocks, oscillators and other applications, is named for him.

The 2015 UFFC Distinguished Service Award was awarded to Jackie Hines for her administration, finance and governance from Section Chair to UFFC President.

The I. I. Rabi Award was presented to John Kitching for his pioneering work on Chip-Scale Atomic Devices.

The 2016 W. G. Cady Award was presented to Bernd Neubig for 40 years of contributions in the area of piezoelectric frequency control devices as a researcher, educator, and entrepreneur and contributions in the international standardization of piezoelectric devices.

The 2016 C. B. Sawyer Award was presented to Paul Muralt for outstanding contributions to understand growing mechanism of piezoelectric thin films and materials, the development of innovative structures for acoustic-wave-based resonators and transducers and the promotion of their use for effective time-and-frequency applications.

We look forward to seeing all of you at the 2017 IFCS-EFTF at Besancon, France from July 9-13!

21. Impact factor of IEEE Trans. UFFC has risen from 1.512 to 2.287

• JASA, 1.572
• Journal of Applied Physics, 2.101
• Ultrasonics, 1.954
• Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, 2.298

22. IEEE UFFC Society Sponsors Students to Attend NIST Time and Frequency Seminar

UFFC-Sponsored Students: Adarsh Ganesan (U. of Cambridge, UK), Elizabeth Donley (NIST host), Maxime Auchlin, (U. of Houston, USA), Andres David Rodriguez Salas (U. of São Paulo, Brazil), Alper Ozgurluk (UC Berkeley, USA), Dipenkumar Barot, (U. of Alabama, Huntsville, USA), Aishik Acharya (NPL, India), Megha Agrawal (U. of Cambridge, UK), Etienne Vaillant (FEMTO-ST, France), Ruonan Liu (UC Berkeley, USA).

23. Student Activities at IFCS in New Orleans, May 2016

• Ruonan Liu ("RF-Powered Micromechanical Clock Generator")
• Etienne Vaillant ("Phase Noise Measurement of AlN Contour-Mode Resonators")
• Liron Stern ("Chip-Scale Atomic Cladding Wave Guides for Optical Frequency References in the Telecom and NIR Regime")
• Maribel Maldonado-Garcia ("Miniaturized Aerosol Impactors with Integrated Piezoelectric Thin Film Resonant Mass Balances")
• Maxime Favier, ("Frequency Ratio of a Mercury Optical Lattice Clock with Primary and Secondary Frequency Standards")

24. Challenge event at IUS 2016

25. Prof. Dr. Franz Seifert - Oral History

26. Prof. Dr. Franz Seifert - Obituary

27. 2016 IEEE UFFC Society Travel Support for the NIST Time and Frequency Seminar!

The registration fee will be paid directly from UFFC funds. Airfare and hotel expenses (double occupancy) will be reimbursed. Most meals are provided by the hotel (breakfast) or by NIST. Students are responsible for transportation to and from Denver airport and meals not covered by NIST.

Your application will be reviewed by members of the Frequency Control Standing Committee and the Education Committee.

We hope this program helps generate a long term interest in a career in Frequency Control and also that we will be able to offer this opportunity in future years.

(Posted 7 April 2016)

28. Two Oral Histories Added

29. Elevated 2016 UFFC-S Fellow

30. ORCID To Be Required of Authors

31. 2015 Frequency Control Proceedings Posted in IEEE Xplore

32. 2015 Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings Available in IEEE Xplore

33. Proceedings of the 2015 Conference on the Applications of Ferroelectrics Available in IEEE Xplore

34. IEEE Transactions on UFFC Content Alerts

35. October 2015 AdCom Meeting Minutes

36. 2015 Symposium on Piezoelectricity, Acoustic Waves, and Device Applications (SPAWDA 2015)

37. 2015 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) in Taipei

The 2015 IEEE International Ultrasonics Symposium (IUS) was held during October 21-24, 2015 at the Taipei International Convention Center in Taiwan. It was the first time that the IUS has been held in Taiwan, and it was our great pleasure to bring together people from all around the world to share the latest advancements in the field of ultrasonics, to inspire new ideas and to promote collaborations.

Abstract submissions were received from 38 countries. About 24% were from North America, 33% from Europe and 42% from Asia. More than 1000 people attended the symposium and more than 800 papers were presented. The participation from Asian countries was at the highest level in the history of the IUS. The plenary speech was delivered by Dr. Pan-Chyr Yang, President of the National Taiwan University on "Ultrasound and translational pulmonary medicine." There were a total of 26 invited talks, including three clinical talks presented by leading clinical experts from Taiwan, Japan and Korea. There was also a special session jointly organized by the IEEE Biometrics Council and the UFFC Society on "Ultrasonics in Biometrics". Eighteen student finalists entered the competition for the Best Student Paper Awards. Six of whom were selected and recognized at the welcome reception.

The social program included the welcome reception on the evening of October 22nd and the symposium banquet in the evening of October 23rd. The banquet performance was particularly memorable. It was given by "U-Theatre" which was founded in Taiwan in October 1988. U-Theatre presents rigorous works of aesthetic beauty rooted in the disciplined study and practice of meditation, drumming, martial arts, Tai-Chi, dance, and acting. Their world-class performance at the symposium was extremely well received. Supported by the Taiwan government, the symposium also offered 400 free tickets to the Taipei 101 observatory. Many attendants took the opportunity to enjoy the views of Taipei from the 89th floor of the second tallest building in the world (382 m above the ground).

To enhance knowledge-sharing at the symposium, this year we implemented new ways for participants to digitally access the technical content. First, we had an APP available for mobile devices that was very informative and easy to use. Second, for the first time, the paper submission deadline was two weeks ahead of the symposium so that all submitted papers were made available for online browsing at the symposium. This enabled participants to learn more about work presented at the conference while it was of highest interest and while direct interaction with the authors was still possible. Third, with presenters' consent, oral sessions were recorded and made available the day after the presentation. Because there were 8 parallel sessions during the first half of the symposium (another record for IUS) and 6 parallel sessions during the second half, participants were often forced to miss some of the presentations that they were interested in attending. With recording, people can choose to view the presentations of interest whenever convenient.

The IEEE IUS is a symposium with a long history and one of the major technical meetings in the world in the area of ultrasound technologies. It was our privilege to host this event and to provide a platform for technical discussion, knowledge sharing and social networking. We will see you in Tours for the 2016 meeting.

38. UFFC-S Videos

IEEE UFFC-S channel and 2008 IEEE IUS and More

39. IEEE UFFC WIE Event, IUS 2015

40. 2nd 2015 AdCom Meeting In conjunction with the 2015 International Ultrasonics Symposium, TICC, Taipei, Taiwan, October 25, 2015

The second 2015 UFFC AdCom Meeting was held on October 25, 2015 at the Taipei International Convention Center in Taipei, Taiwan. There were 38 in attendance and 9 WebEx attendees.

Normal business was conducted including receiving reports from the Officers and Committee Chairs of the Society. Ten (10) motions that were voted electronically between the last AdCom meeting and this one were read into the minutes. Four (4) motions were made and voted on during this meeting, three (3) were approved, and one (1) defeated.

Some highlights of the meeting included:

1. Current UFFC President Jian-yu Lu was recognized for his outstanding service to our Society. He was presented with a plaque by the incoming President, Clark Nguyen. Jian-yu passed the "Gavel" to Clark whose term will begin in 2016. Thank you Dr. Lu for your many contributions to UFFC as president for the past two years.
2. The results of the 2016-2018 elected AdCom members was announced by Jackie Hines:
   1. Patrizia Tavella (FC & Region 8)
   2. Michael Tobar (FC & Region 10)
   3. Shujun Zhang (Ferroelectrics, Region 1)
   4. Georg Schmitz (Ultrasonics - Group 1, Region 8)
   Congratulations to these nominees, we look forward to working with you on AdCom in the next few years. We would also like to thank the Elected AdCom members whose terms are expiring at the end of this year for their dedicated service to our Society. Those members are, James Miller, Paul Muralt, Matteo Rinaldi and Xiaoli Tan.
3. The slate of nominees for President-Elect was presented by Jackie Hines the Chair of the Nominations Committee. The slate was made up of four (4) very qualified candidates who presented their ideas and goals for UFFC's future, Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb, Paul Reynolds, Clemens Ruppel and Jafar Saniie. The vote was very close but it is with great pleasure we announce Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb to be the next President-Elect. Nazanin is from the Ferroelectrics area of UFFC, she will be President-Elect for 2 years and her Presidential term will begin in 2018. Nazanin will also be the General Chair of the 2017 ISAF Conference to be held in Atlanta, Georgia.
4. New Student Member promotion is being implemented that will provide free gifts to new and renewing student members. The gift will be a mug that is being designed by students. The establishment of the online store process is underway now, we hope to being providing this service in 2016.
5. A revised UFFC-S Travel Policy has been approved and is available on the UFFC-AdCom website.
6. Mike Garvey, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee announced the plans to hold an industry networking job fair at the 2016 IUS in France.
7. A motion was approved to transfer $20,000 to the IEEE History Center Fund for documenting the history of IEEE since 1984.
8. A report on a new IEEE Initiative for Smart Materials was presented by Geoff Brennacka. The report is available to all AdCom members on the UFFC-AdCom website.
9. Lori Bridal is the new Newsletter Editor-in-Chief and the Newsletter is being transitioned to a news section on the UFFC-S website.
10. Publication of the UFFC-Transactions is being transitioned from FASS to IEEE. One reason is to take advantage of the pre-print tool which will make papers available much earlier.
11. There is a new UFFC Society video that was shown at IUS and is now available for showing at all conferences. The video is very good quality and is a great promotional tool for the Society.
12. A new online nominations submission process for all awards is being developed. More information will be coming as development continues.
13. Three Oral Histories have been taken this year, Franz Seifert for Ultrasonics, Alex Mueller and Vladimir Fridkin for Ferroelectrics. Sidney Lang will be appointed as the new History Chair beginning in 2016.
14. Youtube videos are now available on the UFFC Education website that include educational materials for each area of UFFC-S.
15. Two new UFFC-S Chapters have been launched, Shenzhen Chapter in China and FEMTO-ST Chapter in France.

There was a wonderful AdCom dinner at the National Palace Museum in Taiwan with beautiful music provided using instruments from the Chinese culture. There was also a tour provided of the museum. Thank you to Pai-chi Li for arranging this event and to his wonderful sister for being our tour guide in the museum.

41. UFFC President Jian-yu Lu was recognized for his outstanding service

42. Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb elected to be the next President-Elect

43. Lori Bridal appointed as the new Newsletter Editor-in-Chief

44. 2016-2018 elected AdCom members

45. April 2015 AdCom Meeting Minutes

46. 2017-2019 UFFC Symposia

47. 2015 Meeting Photos and Videos

The photos and videos taken during the 2015 IEEE UFFC-S 1st AdCom meeting (April 11, 2015), 2015 IEEE IFCS (April 12-16, 2015), 2015 IEEE ISAF (May 24-27, 2015), Frequency Control Committee meetings in Atlanta (February 14-15, 2015), Ultrasonics Committee meetings in Chicago (May 30, 2015), and others are now accessible from the IEEE website at:

The videos can also be accessed directly via the following YouTube links:

• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyCJrgfmWLEQ48-rN6bMjmg/videos
• https://www.youtube.com/user/ieeeIUS/videos

Or, newer individual videos can be accessed as follows:

1. https://youtu.be/6XpGXdjjD80 - 2015 1st UFFC-S AdCom meeting
2. https://youtu.be/vfJkLI5qbtg - Plenary Session
3. https://youtu.be/yB-FyBpoLnk - Banquet/Student Paper Awards
4. https://youtu.be/wEbvhAzhWqc - President's Reception
5. https://youtu.be/Jnye-A1f_Es - President's Student Reception
6. https://youtu.be/t6o5gZsxb2k - Women-in-Engineering Meeting
7. https://youtu.be/Moc7PSMJAec - Post-Conference Review
8. https://youtu.be/-2-pzG7VkZY - Registration
9. https://youtu.be/6wFuh8-iYbM - Exhibits and Posters
10. https://youtu.be/8mjX8bUQotQ - TUFFC Associate Editor Luncheon
11. https://youtu.be/uWwzMUPppSA - Strategic Planning Meeting
12. https://youtu.be/b01olFetQDw - 2nd FCSC Meeting of 2015
13. https://youtu.be/jYMbUeo8JeM - 1st TPC Meeting of 2016 IEEE IFCS

1. https://youtu.be/hn5jLcwvv9I - Opening Session
2. https://youtu.be/cbKOeYA5gd4 - Banquet, Awards, and Shows
3. https://youtu.be/OPclZAsFTL0 - President's Reception
4. https://youtu.be/yd0V_LGPLIY - President's Student Reception
5. https://youtu.be/YYjK9-AI9-w - Women-in-Engineering Meeting
6. https://youtu.be/Nqa3lwN732o - Welcome Reception
7. https://youtu.be/rgfnWzTXpq0 - Exhibits/Posters/Registration etc
8. https://youtu.be/PHzLsPjNZr4 - 2nd FerroCom Meeting of 2015

1. https://youtu.be/igrf0laWX6M - 1st UltraCom Meeting of 2015
2. https://youtu.be/t7oeQ7U2tZY - 2nd TPC Meeting of 2015 IEEE IUS

1. https://youtu.be/1JVuEHSYyO8 - 1st FCSC Meeting of 2015
2. https://youtu.be/aT1wRh0ZA4I - 2nd TPC Meeting of 2015 IEEE IFCS

1. https://youtu.be/LA0h1_2rIrs - Introduction to the IEEE UFFC-S
2. https://youtu.be/2c6gCnDAKqk - 2015 IEEE POCO, Glasgow, UK
3. https://youtu.be/-GiutmEb0lQ - 2015 IEEE Awards Ceremony

48. Travel Reimbursement Policy

49. Reports from Distinguished Lecturers

50. Overview of ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2015

2015 Joint IEEE International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectric (ISAF), International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities (ISIF), and Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Workshop (PFM) (ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2015) was held during 24 May 2015 (Sunday) to 27 May 2015 (Wednesday), in Singapore. The organization of the joint conference was led by the General Chairs, Kui Yao and Weiguang Zhu, with the strong supports from Ahmad Safari and Jacob L. Jones, Orlando Auciello and Jolanta Celinska, Andrei Kholkin and Kaiyang Zeng, cooperatively working as the Program Chairs for ISAF, ISIF and PFM, respectively for one fully integrated conference program. The joint ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2015 conference addressed the science and technological developments related to ferroics, pyroelectrics, piezoelectrics, dielectrics, nanocarbons, and their integration to enable new multifunctional devices, including sensors, actuators, transducers, memories, capacitors, electro-optic devices, magnetic devices, medical devices, and energy harvesting and storage devices.

About 450 abstracts had been received from 36 countries/regions. About 390 presentations were selected after the technical review covering the scope of three symposiums. The main conference program included 6 tutorial lectures, 6 plenary presentations, 5 parallel oral sessions, poster presentations including Student Poster Competition, and industry exhibitions. Tutorial lecturers and speakers in the joint conference were invited in consideration of the interests and representation of the three symposiums. Kenji Uchino, Andrei Kholkin, Zuo-guang Ye, Pablo Gurman, Orlando Auciello, Ian Reaney, Carlos Paz de Araujo, and Jolanta Celinski were the tutorial lecturers in the two parallel tutorial sessions held on Sunday. Thomas R. Shrout, Carlos Paz de Araujo, Paul S. Weiss, Kazumi Kato, Chunlin Jia, and Stefan Mueller were the speakers to deliver the 6 plenary talks in the following three days. A special technical session on Monday was dedicated to the memory of Prof. Hans Schmid.

In addition, conference reception and banquet, IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) (chaired by Nazanin Bassiri), IEEE UFFC President's Student Reception (chaired by Jian-yu Lu), and several committee meetings, were held and well attended during the conference.

The best poster award judging was conducted during the conference, and 5 prizes for the best posters were awarded to 5 students: Veronika Kovacova (Laboratoire d'electronique des technologies de l'information (CEA-LETI), France), Weng Heng Liew (Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR, and National University of Singapore, Singapore), Anirban Ghos (University of Twente, Netherlands), Daisuke Ito (Nagoya University, Japan), and Maciej Rokosz (Imperial College London, United Kingdom).

In the conference banquet, Prof Ahmad Safari announced the winner of 2015 IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award: Andrei Kholkin, from University of Aveiro, Portugal, and winner of 2015 IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Young Investigator Award: Ronald G. Polcawic, US Army Research Laboratory, USA.

The ISAF-ISIF-PFM 2015 joint event helped participants from industry, research institutes, and academia, to exchange interdisciplinary ideas on various multifunctional materials, including but not limited to ferroelectrics, and many interesting integrated functionalities related to ferroelectrics. More details about the conference can be found at https://sites.ieee.org/isaf-isif-pfm-2015/.

51. 2015 IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium

The 2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium & European Frequency and Time Forum (2015 IFCS-EFTF) was held in the Colorado Convention Center (CCC), Denver, CO, US, from April 12-16. The first day (Sunday) featured a whole-day tutorial covering (i) MEMS Oscillators, (ii) Frequency References and Phase Noise, and (iii) M/NEMS, BAW, SAW, Quartz Resonators. The following four days (Monday - Thursday) were the regular sessions including (i) one plenary talk, (ii) 30 regular oral sessions separated into three parallel tracks, and (iii) two poster sessions on Monday and Tuesday. There were overall 417 submitted abstracts in this joint conference where the selected presentations include 160 lectures and 210 posters, among which 16 invited lectures were spread into various sessions.

On Sunday, almost all the tutorial speakers had breakfast together (Fig. 1) and chatted about the upcoming conference events. There were 12 tutorial sessions spread into three parallel tracks covering three major topics mentioned above. Some of the photos taken during the talks (photos in order: Aaron Partridge, Enrico Rubiola, John Vig, Yook-Kong Yong, Ashwin Seshia, Mike Driscoll, Kenja Hashimoto, Troy Olsson, and Matteo Rinaldi) and the break are shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 2: Tutorial sessions and the break.

At the end of Sunday, the Standing Committee members had a meeting (Fig. 3) in Denver Marriott City Center to discuss (i) the update of 2015 IFCS/EFTF, (ii) the status of the IFCS Proceedings and Special Issue of the IEEE T-UFFC, (iii) 2016 IFCS in New Orleans and 2017 EFTF-IFCS in Besançon, and (iv) IFCS Proceedings policy. In particular, the committee greatly appreciated Dr. Andrew Ludlow to lead the IFCS subcommittee on the IFCS Proceedings Policy in the past year, finally yielding a consensus which will be proposed to the ADCOM of the UFFC. This is certainly a tough task which took a long discussion and debate.

On Monday, the plenary session started with the opening remarks given by the general chair, Dr. Gregory Weaver, as shown in Fig. 4, followed by the awards session. This year, the I.I. Rabi Award goes to Dr. Ulrich L. Rohde (Fig. 5) for his intellectual leadership, selection and measurement of resonator structures for implementation in high performance frequency sources, essential to the determination of atomic resonance. The W.G. Cady Award goes to Dr. Ajay K. Poddar (Fig. 6) for the analysis, design, and development of a host of frequency control products exhibiting state-of-the-art performance, including the development of extremely low noise crystal oscillator circuitry. The C.B. Sawyer Award goes to Dr. Wan-Thai Hsu (Fig. 7) for co-founding Discera, Inc., and pioneering the development and commercialization of MEMS oscillators.

Figure 4: Opening of the conference.

Figure 5: 2015 I.I. Rabi Award goes to Dr. Ulrich L. Rohde.

Figure 6: 2015 W.G. Cady Award goes to Dr. Ajay K. Poddar.

Figure 7: 2015 C.B. Sawyer Award goes to Dr. Wan-Thai Hsu.

In the plenary session, Dr. Judah Levine served as the plenary speaker this year and talked about "Distributing Time and Frequency Information: A user's perspective," as shown in Fig. 8. His talk focused on the methods that are used to distribute time and frequency information from the perspective of the end-user, and the capability of each of these methods with specific examples. In the end of the opening session shown in Fig. 9, Dr. Lute Maleki, as General Chair of 2016 IFCS, made an announcement regarding the events and attractions of the next symposium to be held in New Orleans, LA, USA, during May 9-12, 2016.

Figure 9: Announcement of 2016 IFCS.

On Monday evening, the conference banquet took place at the Wings over the Rockies Air and Space Museum as shown in Fig. 10. The place is a truly historic hangar of the former Lowry Air Force Base, which made this banquet a very special and precious experience to the attendees. The attendees first looked around the flight exhibitions of the museum and then enjoyed the wine and conversation with their families, colleagues, and friends. The banquet dinner was conducted in the center of the exhibition hall with a local band performing pleasant music.

Figure 10: Conference banquet at the Wings Over the Rockies.

Figure 11: Banquet dinner and music performance.

On Tuesday morning, the conference offered a special event - the Entrepreneurs Forum. Dr. Wan-Thai Hsu served as the moderator who invited (i) Lute Maleki, Founder, President and CEO of OEwaves, (ii) Aaron Partridge, Chief Scientist of SiTime, (iii) Ulrich Rohde, Chairman of Synergy Microwave, and (iv) Richard Ruby, the pioneer of Avago FBAR technologies. The IFCS-EFTF would take this opportinuty to pass the entrepreneurial spirit and experience of the seniors with successful startups and products to the young generations in this community. The panel had a lively discussion as shown in Fig. 12.

Figure 12: Entrepreneurs Forum.

On Tuesday afternoon, as a legend of the oscillator phase noise, Dr. David B. Leeson gave a talk entitled "Oscillator Phase Noise: A 50-year Retrospective," which reviews the derivation of the oscillator phase noise in the past 50 years (Fig. 13). It's a great pleasure for all of us working on oscillators to see Dr. Leeson since most of the studies of the phase noise are based on the Leeson's equation.

Figure 13: Dr. Leeson's talk on the retrospective of phase noise.

The poster sessions were in the afternoons of Monday and Tuesday, as shown in Fig. 14. The posters of the student paper competition finalists were also displayed in this area and the best paper awards were judged based on the poster presentations on Monday afternoon.

Figure 14: Poster sessions.

On Tuesday evening, the UFFC President, Dr. Jian-yu Lu, hosted the President's Reception in the Marriott City Center Hotel to thank all the contributors to this joint conference, as shown in Fig. 15. Special thank you goes to the Co-general Chairs, Gregory Weaver and Ekkehard Peik, and JTPC Co-chairs, Yoonkee Kim and Gaetano Mileti, for their excellent organization and service in this joint conference.

Figure 15: President's Reception.

On Wednesday noon, Dr. Elizabeth Donley called for the 1st TPC meeting for the 2016 IFCS, as shown in Fig. 16, to be held in New Orleans next year. The draft of the 2016 IFCS TPC time table was set and TPCs in different groups were discussing the potential plenary and invited speak list during the meeting.

Figure 16: 1st TPC meeting of IFCS 2016.

In summary, this was a successful conference where we could communicate with the professionals in the frequency control domain and share our latest research results with the experts in the same fields. The techical and social events during the confernece were all very nice and the attendees did enjoy this arrangement. We look forward to seeing all of you in the 2016 IFCS at New Orleans in May 9-12. For more information, please visit the official websie: https://ifcs2016.org/

52. Student activities at 2015 International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics

In May 2015, UFFC-S hosted the IEEE International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectric (ISAF). The symposium was held jointly with the International Symposium on Integrated Functionalities (ISIF), and Piezoresponse Force Microscopy Workshop (PFM). This was the biggest event in ferroelectric research field in 2015 and students all over the world attended this conference. UFFC-S provided a grand platform for the students to present their research results, share ideas and experiences with their peers, learn from the senior researchers and build network with other research fellows. UFFC-S was dedicated to promote this event and help students to have a better experience in the conference.

Student Travel Awards. Considering the opportunity of students attending conferences overseas is usually limited by the financial constraints,UFFC-S provided travel fund to student members with excellent research work. It helped talented students to have an opportunity to present their result to other researchers in the field, and encouraged them to achieve more in the future.

Student poster competition.
UFFC-S also hosted a student poster competition. 15 students' posters were selected to be the finalists and 5 students won the best student posters competition. The winners included Daisuke Ito from Nagoya University, Japan ("Fabrication of Tetragonal Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Nanorods by Focused Ion Beam and Characterization of the Domain Structure"); Maciej Rokosz from Imperial College London, United Kingdom ("Spatial and Time-Resolved Direct Measurement of Electrocaloric Effect Using Infrared Thermal Imaging"); Weng Heng Liew from National University of Singapore, Singapore ("Polarization Orientation and Enhanced Properties in Piezoelectric P(VDF-TrFE) Nanotube Array"); Veronika Kovacova from CEA-LETI, France ("Composition Gradient Effect on the Phase Transition of Morphotropic Pb(Zr,Ti)O3 Thin Films"); and Anirban Ghosh from University of Twente, Netherlands ("Tuning the Polarization Switching Dynamics Through Polarization Coupling in a PbZrxTi(1-x)O3 / ZnO Heterostructure for Neuron Like Synaptic Memory"). Congratulations to the winners!

53. WIE activities at 2015 International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics

The WIE Panel Session was held on Monday 25 May-2015, 13:00 - 14:00 at the conference center. This year's event addressed an important challenge that many women in engineering fields face: the "impostor syndrome". The Imposter Syndrome is a term describing successful people that cannot internalize their accomplishments. It overwhelmingly affects successful women in science and technology fields, who feel like they don't belong and that all their accomplishments are simply due to luck.

The session started by an introduction and background provided by the moderator, Prof. Nazanin Bassiri-Gharb (Georgia Tech) and continued with a discussion of the personal experiences of a panel of accomplished scientists: Prof. Susan Troller-McKinstry (Penn State, USA), Prof. Barbara Malic (Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia) and Prof. Jacob Jones (NCSU, USA). The panelists discussed what makes/made them feel like an imposter and how they deal/dealt with it. The presentations were then followed by an open-floor discussion and exchange with the audience. The panel was attended by approximately 45 people, including both early stage researchers and well-established scientists and professionals.

54. Intellectual Property Protection

55. Newsletters

56. Awards at the 2015 International Symposium on Ferroelectrics

57. Women in Engineering Luncheon at 2015 IFCS

At the 2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium & European Frequency and Time Forum, Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado
April 14, 2015

The WIE event for IFCS this year was a luncheon held in room 201 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, April 14, 2015. The invited speaker for this event was Dr. Patricia Rankin, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Colorado Boulder.

The event was very much a success, even though our numbers were somewhat smaller than expected due to some conflicts with other meetings, we did have about fifteen people in attendance. Most of the attendees were students which was very appropriate since Dr. Rankin is a professor with her PhD in Physics so she had some very good words of wisdom for them.

Dr. Rankin recently finished her work as PI of an NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Award - The Leadership Education for Advancement and Promotion (LEAP) program which is now fully institutionalized. LEAP had a research component that established baselines for the status of women at the university and also funded studies probing how career decisions are made. As well as supporting the development of a series of well received workshops that are continuing, LEAP spurred research into issues such as demographic inertia and the types of networks most effective at promoting institutional change. She is now using this expertise nationally and internationally to promote faculty development and help further the advancement of women in science and engineering.

Dr. Rankin shared some very useful tools for women to use as they develop their careers in the fields of science and engineering. Some of these tools related to learning what our natural talents and personality traits are and using this information to help develop our career paths. She talked about specific situational and relational aspects of the workplace and laboratory environments, she gave specific insights into what "to do" and what "not to do" in handling workplace issues that come up. She also shared several resources for networking and mentoring programs that would apply especially to the students who are just beginning their careers.

The time with Dr. Rankin was very interactive, lots of questions from the audience and communication with each other at the different tables. Many stayed after the lunchtime was over, just to glean more insight from her and each other. It was a very enjoyable time and also quite useful to those who attended.

The 2016 WIE event which will be held in New Orleans in May is currently being organized, more information will available soon.

58. Spotlight on Students at IFCS 2015

By Duo Pan and Jian Yao, UFFC-S Student Representatives for Frequency Control

In 2015 April, UFFC-S hosted the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium (IFCS) in Denver, CO. The conference was held jointly with the European Frequency and Time Forum (EFTFT). Students from all over the world attended the symposium. They brought new ideas and creative techniques. They met with other students, interacted with senior researchers, and bridged the network with the industry. To better serve students, the UFFC-S has done a few things during the IFCS meeting.

Student Travel Awards. Considering that some students cannot afford the travel fee, such as air tickets and accommodation, the UFFC-S provided travel grants based on the financial difficulty and the creativity of their research work. This enabled students to share their work with the whole society.

President's Student Reception. Meeting with senior researchers and engineers is a great opportunity for students to know more about the past, the present, and the future of their field. The UFFC-S held the President's Student Reception, where many well-known scientists and engineers, including the UFFC-S President Jian-yu Lu and the 2015 IFCS Committee Chair Gregory Weaver, shared their opinions and suggestions with students.

Best Student Paper Awards. Seven students were selected by the UFFC-S to receive the best student paper awards. Congratulations to the winners: Gwendolyn Hummel ("Switchable 2-Port Aluminum Nitride MEMS Resonator Using Monolithically Integrated 3.6THz Cut-Off Frequency Phase-Change Switches"), Guillaume William Bres-Saix ("A Zynq Based Digital Phase and Amplitude Measurement System"), Aaron Bennett ("Precision Measurements of Quantum Scattering Phase Shifts Through Feshbach Resonances"), Taimur Aftab ("A Novel Microwave Reflector-Antenna As a Resonant Wireless Passive Mechanical Sensor"), Wei Huang, ("CGTTS results with Beidou using the R2CGTTS"), and Bjarke Takashi Rojle Christensen ("Laser Stabilization on Velocity Dependent Nonlinear Dispersion of Sr Atoms in an Optical Cavity").

59. 1st 2015 AdCom Meeting

In conjunction with the 2015 Joint Conference of the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium & European Frequency and Time Forum, Marriott Hotel, Denver, Colorado
April 11, 2015

The first 2015 UFFC AdCom Meeting was held on April 11, 2015 at the Marriott Hotel in Denver, Colorado. There were 45 in attendance and 3 WebEx attendees.

Normal business was conducted including receiving reports from the Officers and Committee Chairs of the Society. Five (5) motions that were voted electronically between the last AdCom meeting and this one were read into the minutes. Twenty one (21) motions were made and voted on during this meeting, sixteen (16) were approved, one (1) amended, three (3) withdrawn and one (1) defeated.

Some highlights of the meeting included:

1. President Jian-yu Lu reporting that Dr. John Vig was inducted into the Hall of Honor of IEEE TAB "For improving operations and processes of the IEEE Technical Activities Board"
2. An additional Distinguished Lecturer has been added as approved at the previous AdCom meeting. Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry has received this award.
3. The 5-Year review of T-UFFC has been completed and the preliminary result is "Successful" with a comment from PRAC of "This is a very healthy publication with an excellent track record".
4. The 5-Year review of the UFFC Society has been completed with the preliminary result being the SRC is satisfied with the UFFC-S Report.
5. UFFC-S has become a member of the IEEE RFID Technical Committee with a commitment of $5,000 per year for at least 3 years, Don Malocha has been appointed as the representative.
6. A UFFC-S Student Branch Chapter is forming at the University of Southern California (USC) in the Metropolitan Los Angeles Section. Other UFFC-S chapters are under development.
7. There was discussion about the UFFC-S current email databases and policies, an Ad Hoc committee will be established to develop guidelines to be presented in October at the next AdCom meeting.
8. A new project was introduced for recording slides plus audios for the three UFFC-S annual conferences.
9. IUS-UltraCom has developed a new Operations Manual, IFCS is currently in the process of developing one as well.
10. A project was presented by the Strategic Planning Committee to provide membership "Perks" to student new members and renewing student members. Regular members can opt to purchase the gift at the time of their membership submission. The initial gift will be a "mug".
11. An Industry networking event (job fair) will be held at the IUS 2016 in France.
12. UFFC-S will be donating $5,000 to the IEEE History Center.
13. An Ad Hoc committee will be formed to develop charitable support projects that relate to UFFC supported technologies.

There was a wonderful AdCom dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange, one of the oldest restaurants in Denver founded in 1893.

60. 2014 IUS Student Paper Competition with photo

61. Spotlight on Students at IUS 2014

62. IEEE T-UFFC Announcements

63. Women in Engineering Page

64. Oral History of Dr. Eiichi Fukada

65. Submitting Papers to the IEEE Transactions on UFFC

66. Twitter Page

67. Technical Activities Board Hall of Honor

68. Single Sign-On

69. WIE Inspiring Member of the Year Award

70. UFFC-S Administrative Assistant

71. IEEE Memberships and Subscriptions Catalog

72. Calendar page

73. UFFC logo

74. 2014 Nobel Prize Winners and the IEEE

75. Walter Guyton Cady Page

76. We thank the following people for their services and contributions to the UFFC-S

Elected AdCom Members (term from 2012-2014):
Dr. Sylvain Ballandras
Dr. Andrew Ludlow
Dr. Mickael Tanter
Dr. Zuo-Guang Ye

Chair of IEEE UFFC-S Fellows Committee:
Dr. Tom Parker

Chair of IEEE UFFC-S Chapters Committee:
Dr. Estelle Camus

Senior AdCom Student Representatives:
Joel B. Harley (Ultrasonics)
Reagan Belan (Ferroelectrics)
Andreja Erbes (Frequency Control)

Student Advisor:
Nikolai Kozlovski

General Chair of the 2013 IEEE UFFC-S Joint Conference:
Dr. Ahmad Safari

IEEE UFFC-S Representative (alternate) to the IEEE Sensors Council:
Dr. Reichl B. Haskell

We welcome the following people and wish them success:

Elected AdCom Members (term from 2015-2017):
Dr. Yook-Kong Yong (Ultrasonics)
Dr. Geoff Brennecka (Ferroelectrics)
Dr. Elizabeth Donley (Frequency Control)
Dr. Jeremy K. A. Everard (Region 8-10)

Chair of IEEE UFFC-S Fellows Committee:
Dr. Susan Trolier-McKinstry

Editor-in-Chief-Elect of IEEE TUFFC:
Peter A. Lewin

Chair of IEEE UFFC-S Chapters Committee:
Dr. Qifa Zhou

Student Advisor:
Dr. Joel B. Harley

2015 UFFC-S AdCom Junior Student Representatives:
Anurupa Shaw
Elaheh Taghaddos
Duo Pan

General Chairs of 2016 IEEE UFFC-S Conferences:
Dr. Ayache Bouakaz, 2016 IEEE IUS
Dr. Jurgen Roedel, 2016 IEEE ISAF
Dr. Lute Maleki, 2016 IEEE IFCS