Announcing the Recipient of the 2007 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award: Clayton R. Paul, Mercer University

Professor Clayton R. Paul is the recipient of the 2007 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. This award is a Technical Field Award of the Institute established by the Board of Directors in 1990 to honor teachers of electrical and electronics engineering and related disciplines “for inspirational teaching of undergraduate students in fields of interest to the IEEE.”
This award recognizes superior achievement in the field of education. Selection criteria include such contributions as curriculum development, authorship of course materials, involvement with students and faculty in advisory capacities, as well as “attracting students to engineering and scientific professions, and preparing them for effective careers in engineering and the sciences.” The award consists of a bronze medal, certificate, and honorarium. For more information about the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award, go to www.ieee.org.
On a professional note, Dr. Paul is the Sam Nunn Eminent Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. He is a world-renowned authority in electromagnetic theory and has been responsible for many seminal advancements in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). His contributions in modeling and quantifying interference on cabling between systems have laid the foundation for today’s benchmark methods used for assessing and mitigating electromagnetic interference (EMI) in complex wire and cable arrangements. He is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at the University of Kentucky, where he served on the Electrical Engineering faculty for 27 years. His course on EMC at this university was among the first of its kind. He has not only contributed to major educational activities at the university level, but, as a distinguished lecturer for the IEEE/EMC Society, has presented many lectures on basic EMC theory, low RF emission circuit design, and practical EMC applications. He has published 15 textbooks and more than 150 papers and reports. Dr. Paul has the technical competency and the inherent ability to teach EMC concepts based on electromagnetic principles (his books on EM Fields and EMC are well written and widely adopted today).
Dr. Paul is a Fellow of the IEEE, the only two-time recipient of the IEEE/EMC Richard Stoddart Award for Outstanding Performance, and recipient of the 2005 IEEE Electromagnetics Award, in addition to the 2007 IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. He is also an honorary life member of the IEEE EMC Society.
On a personal note, I have known Clayton for almost 40 years, both as a colleague in the IEEE EMC Society and when he was the chairman of the technical program committee of the long running EMC Zurich Symposium in Switzerland. During his term as technical program chairman, the technical papers of the Zurich symposia were elevated to an extraordinarily high level and technical depth that was directly the result of his untiring work.
I first met Mr. (as he was addressed at that time) Paul at Georgia Tech when he was a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) for an introductory course in electronics (not EM!) in which I was enrolled. Obviously, this was before I was a Professor at Georgia Tech, and when I was the student and Clayton was the “Prof”. That was back in the days when we had Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday classes. Not only did this class meet every Saturday morning at 8:00 am, but also Clayton gave us a “pop quiz” each Saturday morning. Initially, I thought he was being especially hard on us until I finally realized that he was actually giving those few of us who came to class early each Saturday morning extra credit for attending the class. (I was too sleepy on Saturday morning to realize that until late into the quarter. But, the pop quiz woke me up for the rest of the early morning class!) I remember Clayton as one of the best engineering teachers I had at Georgia Tech. He was responsible, in part, for my interest in academia and teaching, and my studies in EM and EMC.
Clayton was a great teacher from the start, and he has only gotten better since then! He is an outstanding engineer, scientist, and educator, and is highly deserving of the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. Thank you, Clayton, for your dedication to the teaching profession.
Editor’s Note: Given his long history in the EMC Society, it is indeed appropriate that Dr. Paul is honored with this award during the Society’s 50th Anniversary celebration year. IEEE President Leah Jamieson will present the award personally to Dr. Paul during the Plenary Session at the 2007 IEEE International Symposium on EMC on Tuesday, July 10, at 8:30 am in Honolulu, Hawaii. Not one to rest on his laurels, the EMC Society especially thanks Dr. Paul for his efforts as the co-chair of the Global EMC University course which debuts at EMC 2007. The outstanding curriculum and faculty teaching this course are the result of his tireless work and are a testament to the quality he brings to EMC education. EMC