EMC Society History

History Committee is Moving Forward as We Look Backwards
The History Committee is basking in the glow of the successful 50th Anniversary celebration of the EMC Society while we move forward into 2008. We welcome this opportunity to highlight some of our past accomplishments as a Society in the Society’s Newsletter. We encourage inputs from members on the historical accomplishments of our members so that we might publish them to a wider audience.
In this issue of the Newsletter, we are highlighting the fourth most-referenced IEEE Transactions on EMC paper of the first 50 years. The paper is by Clayton Paul and its title is “Frequency Response of Multiconductor Transmission Lines Illuminated by an Electromagnetic Field.” It was first published in EMC-18, No.4 in November of 1976.
We also have the second article of its type; an article that looks back 50, 25, and 10 years ago into our Newsletters and pulls out highlights of those Newsletter issues.
And, we are pleased to publish the second “EMC War Story” from one of the Founders of the EMC Society. This “EMC War Story” is by Tony Zimbalatti and it involves his experience with an antenna-EMC challenge on an airplane. These “EMC War Stories” are transcribed versions of short talks given by the “Founders” at the 2007 IEEE International Symposium on EMC in Hawaii on Thursday, July 12, 2007.

IEEE Global History Network
The EMC Society has been approached by the IEEE History Center about participating in the “IEEE Global History Network.” We have indicated an initial interest and we are awaiting more details about our potential commitment to the idea.
The IEEE History Committee asked the IEEE History Center staff to prepare a plan to build this “IEEE Global History Network.” This “Network” would incorporate a public awareness value into the values of global focus and community building. It would enable IEEE members and other appropriate people to join the IEEE History Committee “in its efforts to preserve, research, and promote the history of engineering and technology by making known to others the results of their research, sharing best practices, learning of opportunities for resources and support, and publicizing their activities.”
The goal of the ”IEEE GHN” is to provide the premier global network of the history of electrotechnology. It will integrate the existing IEEE history resources with the capabilities of the web for collaboration. It will provide a unified web presence with input of additional materials through a “Wiki” environment.
The complete plan is still being developed by the IEEE History Center and we will keep you up to date as it develops.
The IEEE History Center publishes a periodic newsletter that can be accessed through the IEEE web site (www.ieee.org). You can read additional details on the “IEEE GHN” in the November 2007 issue of their newsletter. EMC

Stories from 50-25-10 Years Ago in the EMC Society Newsletter
Dan Hoolihan, History Committee Chair

50-Years Ago (March 1958 Newsletter – Issue No. 2)
The title of the Newsletter was “The Professional Group on Radio Frequency Interference Newsletter.” The cover story was that a Newsletter committee had been appointed consisting of Rexford Daniels (Chairman), Milton Kant, Anthony Zimbalatti, Leonard Thomas, S. Nellis, Albert R. Kall, and Harold Schwenk (Ex-Officio). The Newsletter was three pages in length.

25-Years Ago (Spring 1983 Issue – Issue No. 117)
There were two cover stories; the first was titled “Nominations for Board of Directors” and it requested that petition forms be sent to Gene Knowles, Nomination Chairman. The second cover story was “Standard Metric Practice Approved by ANSI.” It discussed the release of ANSI/IEEE 268-1982 – American National Standard Metric Practice that was priced at $5.00.
The President of the EMC Society Board of Directors was William Duff. The Newsletter contained a one-page ad for the 1983 IEEE International Symposium on EMC to be held at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel in Washington, D.C. from August 23-25. The Symposium was intended to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the IEEE International EMC Symposium. Robert D. Goldblum was the Newsletter Editor.

10-Years Ago (Spring 1998 – Issue No. 177)
The caption for the cover story was “Education, Education, and Education” and was written by Dan Hoolihan, President of the EMC Society. The article encouraged the readers to “take advantage of your expertise and volunteer to give training talks for your local EMC Society Chapter.”
The Chapter Chatter section was written by Todd Hubing and included three poems with 7 or 8 syllable rhyming phrases with titles “An EMC Engineer’s View,” “A Novice Digital Designer’s View,” and “An Experienced Digital Designer’s View.” These popular poems are reprinted in this Newsletter – see Chapter Chatter on page 10.
The Newsletter also contained a commentary by Dr. Howard Johnson which was captioned “One Reader’s Opinion – Why Digital Engineers Don’t Believe in EMC.”
The Book Review portion of the Newsletter, by Associate Editor J. L. Norman Violette, looked at EMC Analysis Methods and Computational Models written by Frederick M. Tesche, Michel V. Ianoz, and Torbjorn Karlsson.
Janet O’Neil was the Newsletter Editor. EMC