Since the printing of the Winter 2011 issue of the EMC Newsletter, it saddens me to report that we lost two members of the EMC Society who passed away.
First, it is very sad for me personally to announce that our good colleague, Professor Risaburo Sato, has passed away. I had known him for over 30 years starting from the time he was on our EMC Society Board of Directors between 1979 and 1984. I, too, was on the Board at that time (it was called the Administrative Committee in those days).
In 1980 he almost single-handedly made the case for establishing the Tokyo EMC Chapter which was the first outside of Regions 1–7 of the IEEE. I was very pleased as that was the year I became president of the EMC Society and hence I was proud to be part of the support of this chapter formation.
I also remember his constant urging of having the first EMC Symposium to be held outside of the US and guess where - Tokyo in 1984. A highlight to me of the opening reception was Professor Sato singing and chanting as well as dancing to Japanese traditional music.
My personal memories of his support of EMC in Japan are lengthy including his membership on our EMC Society Standards Development Committee (simply called the standards committee at the time) for many years and his being instrumental in updating our Standard 187 on measuring emissions from TV receivers - a task that was performed by the Tokyo EMC chapter in record breaking time of a little over a month with his urging.
His energy and contributions for EMC in Japan is truly remarkable and in my book he is and will continue to be Mr. EMC of Japan. He will indeed be missed not only in Japan but worldwide.
Following is a tribute to Professor Sato that was composed by Takeo Yoshino with help from Professor Sato’s students at Tohoku University in Sendai (where the Japan EMC symposium has been held in the past).
EMC Society member Bob Howland also passed away. One of his contributions was in the background supporting several careers in EMC of those that worked for him. To put this in perspective, I have asked Colin Brench to provide the tribute to his good friend and colleague. His tribute is encompassed in Bob’s obituary which is later in this column.
Finally, we are also including a tribute to Professor Ruediger Vahldieck who passed away. Although he was not a member of the EMC Society, he was quite active in the IEEE’s Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Society and an enthusiastic leader of the EMC Zürich Symposium from 2003 to 2009 as well as many other international events. His IEEE activity was extraordinary in his being an IEEE Life Fellow, Chair of the Switzerland Section joint Chapter of the AP, MTT, and EMC Societies between 1999 and 2004, and a member at various times in six other IEEE Societies.
Among the many comments we received about his extraordinary contributions to the international EMC community was expressed by his friend, Erping Li, who led the first successful APEMC symposium with Professor Vahldieck, “He devoted tremendous efforts, not only to EMC-Zürich in Zürich, but also to EMC in Asia; he initiated the first EMC-Zürich outside of Europe, which was held in Singapore in 2006. He further assisted in establishing the Asia Pacific EMC (APEMC) conferences in 2007 and 2008, where he dedicated his efforts both in conference organising and technical papers, which made the APEMC conference one of the most highly regarded EMC conferences in the world. His efforts will be unforgettable.”
Thank you to Wolfgang Hoefer for providing the following tribute to Professor Vahldieck, a man he remembers as “a prominent friend and protagonist of the EMC Society and the EMC community-at-large.” Professor Hoefer first met Ruediger Vahldieck in 1984 when he joined Professor Hoefer’s research group at the University of Ottawa as a postdoctoral fellow. Professor Vahldieck was laid to rest in Croatia, the native country of his spouse Zorka.
I would like to continue to solicit your support in helping me receive the names of EMC Society members that have recently passed away. You can either forward them directly to your local Chapter chair, or if you don’t know who that is, you can forward the names to me directly (d.heirman@ieee.org) or a member of the Completed Careers Committee directly, including Bruce Archambeault, Don Sweeney, and Andy Drozd. See page 3 of this Newsletter or the EMC Society website (www.emcs.org) for contact information of these committee members.
Thank you in advance for your assistance as we honor EMC Society members who have completed their careers and made a difference in our careers. |
 |
Risaburo Sato
1921–2011 |
In Memoriam of Risaburo Sato (M’ SM’ F’77 LM’92)
Professor Sato was born in Furukawa City on September 23, 1921. He received the B.S. and Doctor Degrees in electrical engineering from Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan in 1949, and 1952, respectively. Since 1949, he was positioned at Tohoku University as Associate Professor and as Professor from 1961 onwards. When he retired from Tohoku University in 1984, he was given the title Emeritus Professor of Tohoku University, and he moved to Tohoku Gakuin University, Sendai, Japan as Dean of Engineering Faculty until 1999, and given the Emeritus Professor at retirement at this University. He passed away on April 12, 2011 at his home in Sendai City.
His research areas were in very many fields such as transmission networks, microwave low noise circuits design, and antenna design with a notable example being the VHF TV transmission antenna that is at the top of the famous Tokyo Tower. All of these antenna designs were based on the latest EMC technologies. During his research activities, he strongly encouraged the start of EMC activities in Japan. Finally, the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers of Japan (IEICE) established the first Special Committee for research on EMC (EMC-J) under his direction and leadership. In 1979, he became Chair of the EMC-J of IEICE. He also was an advisor of many communication companies and government activities as well as a member of the Japanese National Standard Committee concerned with the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) CISPR (International Special Committee on Radio Interference) international standards activities.
Based on the highly active research work on EMC in Japan, he urged having the IEEE international symposium on EMC in Japan sponsored by the IEEE EMC Society. Hence, in 1980 he made the great effort to first establish the Tokyo Chapter of the IEEE EMC Society. The EMC Society AdCom approved the establishment of the IEEE EMC Society Tokyo Chapter in response to his efforts on June 16, 1980. He was the first chairperson of the Tokyo Chapter which was then the first EMC Society chapter established outside the United States. During this period (1979–1984) he was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the IEEE EMC Society and became the first Board member from Japan. In October 1984, the first Japanese International Symposium on EMC was held in Tokyo. It was sponsored by the IEICE and co-sponsored by the IEEE EMC Society and Tokyo Chapter. This symposium was the first EMC Symposium held in IEEE Region 10. The symposium was very successful with 558 attendees from 26 countries. This event is now held every five years.
In more recent times, Dr. Sato established a new IEEE EMC Society chapter in Sendai in December 2001. This was then the second EMC Society chapter in Japan. The activities of this chapter were immediately recognized with the chapter being awarded the Chapter of the Year Award at the 2003 IEEE EMC Society Symposium. This again is a tribute to Dr. Sato’s vision of supporting EMC.
Other accolades and accomplishments continued for Dr. Sato. In particular, Dr. Sato was awarded the Best Paper Award of the Japanese IEE in 1955 and IEICE in 1979. In 1982, the IEEE MTT Society presented the 1982 Microwave Prize to him and his co-authors. He chaired the EMC Society Standard Committee P-187 (emission measurements from TV receivers) in 1986 and received two awards from the IEEE Standards Board: the Standards Board Award in 1990 and the Standards Board Medal in 1992. In 1997, he was decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon by the Japanese Emperor for his distinguished service contributed to the development of Japanese electronics industries and leading electromagnetic noise reduction research and technology. He received the 2002 IEEE EMC Society Richard R. Stoddart Award and in 2006 he received the IEEE EMC Society Richard Schulz Transactions Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society.
Dr. Sato was a distinguished research professor in the department of electronics and communication engineering at the Tohoku University and Tohoku Gakuin University in Sendai, Japan. He was an authority on a very wide range of EMC and industrial standards engineering in the world. His activities and contributions to the IEEE, especially the EMC Society, as well as to other Societies, cannot be expressed fully since they are so much and so far reaching.
 |
Robert E. Howland
1938–2011 |
The following review of Bob’s life was prepared by Colin Brench who worked for Bob. Colin had significant help in preparing this article from Bob’s daughter – Linda Potter – as well as from many of his other friends in the EMC community. Bob will be remembered as a regular attendee of our annual EMC Society symposia and for his support of chapter events in the Northeast. But as this article will show, it was his encouragement of many EMC engineers to continue in our discipline that will be the lasting contribution.
Bob Howland, age 72 years, completed his career on April 21, 2011 after a brief illness. Bob was a long time member of the dB Society, a Senior Member of the IEEE/EMC Society, an iNARTE certified EMC Engineer, and was also a member of the Woodturners of Central New England and the Afghan Hound Rescue League of New England.
Bob was born in Schenectady, New York in 1938, and graduated from Union college, Schenectady, in 1963 with a BSEE. Bob then went into the U.S. Air Force. After his return, Bob settled in Massachusetts where, in 1975, he joined Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where he worked for nearly 22 years. Initially Bob worked as a design engineer for mass storage systems, but this was the early days of the development of Part 15 of the FCC Rules, and he turned his skills to EMC issues. Over the next several years, DEC replaced many products with newer compliant versions and, as an EMC Engineer, Bob worked on multiple computers and computer related products. Of particular note was the PRO series of DEC PCs that were based upon the PDP-11 microprocessor. It was through his work on these PCs that lead Bob to achieving Consultant Engineer status at DEC, a position restricted to those few who demonstrate exceptional technical skill. In the role of Manager and Consultant Engineer, he was responsible for many products based on the VAX technology, including workstations, servers, and networking devices.
Bob also started a successful, company-wide discussion group for the purpose of sharing technology and ideas. This group served as a model that has been continued by Bob’s DEC colleagues who have moved on to other companies. After DEC, Bob worked for Bay Networks and Nortel, and for his own consulting business, dBH Consulting. He had just started working for Avaya, Inc., as their Regulatory Consultant Engineer, when he became ill.
Despite Bob’s considerable technical expertise, those who worked with him remember him most for his cheerful demeanor and his ability to encourage and mentor all those around him. There was definitely a ‘je ne sais quoi’ about Bob that quietly inspired. He was not arrogant when discussing or debating; he had no qualms in sharing his knowledge. He fostered aspiring to a high goal, but never pushed to share any of the limelight for teaching or inspiring. A couple of typical stories follow.
I first met Bob when I was a young engineer, just out of college by about two months. He was on a business trip to meet my manager and team in California, and was introduced to me as a Principal Engineer with a long successful career at DEC, etc., etc. As one can imagine, I was a bit intimidated, still being new to the profession and barely proficient enough to spell “RF probe”, let alone use one. Our collective group toured the facility and afterward met in a conference room. Just by circumstance, I sat between Bob and my own manager. The discussion started with round-table introductions. There was a VP of this, Director of that, Director again, Manager 1, and Manager 2. When they got to me, I gave my name followed with a title of, “Just an engineer.” Bob followed with, “I’m Bob Howland, just an engineer”; and so started the framework for the rest of the engineering staff to complete the introductions. This was a very simple gesture but, in electing to use this humble footnote, he suddenly became approachable. He had been a mentor and fast friend ever since.
It was Bob Howland who hired me into the EMC group at DEC in 1986. I had been working for a small company where I was the only EMC engineer, so I had had no basis by which I could compare my limited experiences. I felt very much a tenderfoot in this field. I found Bob to be an unusually supportive, knowledgeable, and encouraging manager. He very quickly noted my past experience with antennas and my curiosity about how they are used in EMC measurements; he promptly encouraged me to make this a study, which in turn led to my becoming involved in EMC Standards work. As a result of Bob’s encouragement, I have been working and contributing in the Standards groups for over 30 years.
When Bob and I met up throughout the years at IEEE events, he would always make me smile and laugh a lot! His general cheerfulness and the ability to put people at ease and pull people together was typical of Bob; a rare trait in a competitive world.
Bob is survived by his wife of 48 years, Patricia; a son and daughter, Scott and Linda; a sister, four grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. We will all miss him.
 |
Rüdiger Vahldieck
1951–2011 |
Rüdiger Vahldieck of Zürich, Switzerland, passed away on 21 March 2011 at age 59 after a long and valiant fight with brain cancer. He leaves behind his wife Zorka and his daughter Masha, who were at his bedside.
Rüdiger was born in Heiligenhafen, Germany, on 8 July 1951. He received the Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees, both in Electrical Engineering, from the University of Bremen, Germany, in 1980 and 1983, respectively. From 1980 to 1983 he was a Research Assistant at the Microwave Department of the University of Bremen, where he was engaged in computer aided design of millimeter wave integrated circuits. From 1984 to 1986 he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Ottawa, Canada. In 1986 he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Victoria, Canada, where he became a Full Professor in 1991. During the Fall and Spring of 1992/93 he was a Visiting Scientist with the Ferdinand Braun Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik, Berlin, Germany. In 1996 he accepted the position of Professor of Field Theory at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), first as Leader of the Field Theory Group and subsequently, in 2003, as Head of the Department of Field Theory and Microwave Electronics (IFH). In 2005, he became President of the Research Foundation for Mobile Communications and was elected Head of the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) of ETH Zürich, a position he held at the time when the sudden onset of his grave illness brutally ended his career. Nevertheless, he continued to devote his waning energy to the well being of his family, his institute, his students and his colleagues until he was no longer able to do so. He leaves a rich legacy of scientific discovery, technical innovation, engineering education, and service to the profession.
Professor Vahldieck has been the President and General Chairman of the International Zürich Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC Zürich) from 2003 to 2009, and was General Chair of the 2006 and 2008 APEMC/EMC Zürich in Singapore and 2007 EMC Zürich in Munich. Concurrently he was a Scientist in Residence at the Institute of High Performance Computing in Singapore where he initiated and oversaw several innovative research projects in microwave electronics and plasmonics. He tirelessly served the IEEE in key leadership roles, notably as a reviewer of several IEEE journals, Associate Editor and Editor in Chief of the IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters (2004–2006), Member of the MTT 15 Technical Committee on Field Theory, Chair of IMS TPSC Committee 3, and Chair of the Swiss Joint IEEE MTT, AP, and EMC Societies Chapter. He has been a member of IEEE since 1985, became a Fellow in 1999, and received several outstanding publication awards. He rarely missed an IMS event during the past twenty five years, regularly contributing innovativepapers, workshop presentations and special sessions each year.
Rüdiger was a passionate sailor and spent whatever time he could find on his sailboat with his family and friends. He often mentioned that when the time had come to retire from his many professional responsibilities and to hand over the reins to the next generation, he would weigh anchor and sail the seas. He now has departed on his final voyage, leaving behind his loved ones, friends, students, research associates and colleagues to remember him fondly.
 |
Carl Baum
1940–2010 |
Colleagues and Friends Remember Carl Baum
After the announcement of Carl Baum’s passing, your Completed Careers Associate Editor asked for personal thoughts about Carl and what he meant to our EMC community as well as other technically related fields. There were several that stepped forward to give a portrait of Carl. We start with the remembrances of a close friend, John Norgard. Other comments follow John’s wonderful description of a true genius. You can get the sense of the vastness of his contributions by looking at but one of his projects by visiting this link: https://www.ece.unm.edu/summa/notes/trestle.html
John Norgard Remembers a Close Colleague
I was in Brussels when I heard about Carl’s stroke. From the first few e-mails I received, it seemed that he was getting better, and I had hoped for a complete recovery. It was especially disappointing then to hear that his health had deteriorated and he had died. I was deeply saddened by the news. We have now lost a truly great theoretical genius in our field of Electromagnetics.
Carl was a special friend of mine and a colleague since our PhD Graduate School days together at Caltech. I am sure you can imagine what it must have been like to have had numerous classes with Carl, who knew more than the professors ever did. It is hard to imagine anyone with a greater intellect, knowledge, and experience than Carl had. Carl didn’t learn anything new at Caltech; he knew it all before he came there. After graduating, Carl went back to Kirtland AFB and I went back to Georgia Tech. He didn’t seem to mind my calling him “Kaptain Karl from Kirtland” while in school together.
Despite his eccentricity, he was always very kind, considerate, and encouraging to me, especially when I was a Visiting Professor at the AFRL/PRS with him in Albuquerque. Technically, he was always very patient with me when he was explaining his many new and advanced ideas to me. He didn’t seem to mind my asking him numerous technical questions, for which he always had the answers, supported by several technical references and/or books in his extensive library. His library was actually mentally in his head, not physically in his office, he never had to stop to lookup any reference material for me. I wonder what will happen to his library now. Personally, when I was in Albuquerque, he would often invite me over to his apartment for dinner (that meant going out for dinner and drinks!) followed by a beautiful piano concert by him.
I always thought that Carl was very humble (most of the time, that is!) and that he never got very excited about the many awards that he had received over the years, until I noticed his excitement over receiving the IEEE Electromagnetics (EM) Award at the 2007 IEEE International Symposium on EMC, our 50th Anniversary Meeting in Hawaii. I was on the EM Award Selection Committee, and with the help of Glenn Smith and Tapan Sarkar, we were instrumental in convincing the panel that Carl should get the award that year. I also chaired a special EM Award Session for Carl at the EMC conference, where he presented a very comprehensive review paper on Transmission Line Theory, in his typical way of two simultaneous, hand-written, overhead projector slides. Later that evening, I was sitting with Carl at the Awards Banquet and could not help but notice his excitement when he was officially presented the EM Award. He really enjoyed the notoriety of winning that prestigious award, which he should have, since it is our highest IEEE award in the EM area. He stood up and looked around the room with his head held high and I noted that he really enjoyed the moment! I was very pleased for him, too.
It was a privilege to know Carl personally as one of his Caltech classmates and to read his papers and to study his Interaction Notes; and, later, it was truly a greater privilege to become one of his colleagues and friends.
Carl was also noted for his distinctive “laugh”, which I can still hear echoing down the halls! I, with all of you I am sure, will certainly miss Carl and his laugh. He was truly a brilliant guy!
Larry Cohen Remembers Carl
I can add some humorous experiences concerning Carl.
- About 10 years ago Carl came to meet with my boss Eric Mokole. Eric had to go to a meeting and requested that I spend some time with Carl until he came back. Before I could say one word, Carl was lecturing me on how many EMC engineers were not well prepared in the basics of electromagnetic theory. This lecture lasted an hour and I learned a lot about my own strengths and weaknesses.
- During the EMC Zurich 97 Symposium (I think it was 1997) my friend Dianne went up to Carl who was sitting by himself and said to him, “I understand that you know all about electromagnetic theory. Carl replied “ Well, I know a few things”
Nigel Carter Adds a Challenge
to Come Up with Words
I have to admit I can’t think of anything that would be suitable for an obituary at the moment.
Don Sweeney Recalls Carl’s
Experiments and Even His Music
I met Carl at a lightning conference in 1979 or 1980. It seems that half of the papers started out, “Carl was walking through our lab and said, XYZ. I’m here to present the work I have done, based on his comments.”
A funny story was also part of the conference. One person had presented a technique where one could measure the relative intensity of a lightning strike. It was to take a 20 cent audio tape, put a 1000 Hz tone on it for a few feet and then pull the tape out perpendicular through a plastic pipe. The tip of the pipe was placed next to a ground wire. When the lightning struck, the magnetic fields from the current passing down the wire would demagnetize the tape to a length related to the intensity. You simply listen to the tape and the length of time the tone was missing on the tape was related to the current intensity.
They had tens of thousands of these monitors distributed throughout the US. When Carl heard the presentation, he could not comprehend the inaccuracy of such a measurement. He stated he could measure the current to the nano-amp. Carl had millions to buy equipment. The person with the tape only had a few thousand.
I listened to some of his music today and wish I could hear more.
May he rest in peace!
Please Let Us Know
I would like to continue to solicit your support in helping me receive the names of EMC Society members that have recently passed away. You can either forward them directly to your local Chapter chair, or if you don’t know who that is, you can forward the names to me (d.heirman@ieee.org) or any other committee member which can be found on the EMC Society web page (www.emcs.org) and by clicking on the “Committees” button in the left column. Thank you in advance for your assistance as we honor EMC Society members who have completed their careers. |
Elya Joffe Notes Carl’s Unrest Even Now
I can hardly believe it. Interestingly, while I was teaching a course here in Singapore today, I had quoted a saying of Carl regarding grounding (“ground is an interference distribution system”), not knowing that Carl had passed away.
I will remember him not only as a top notch scientist, a “cedar of Lebanon” of the EMC Society, but also as a friendly person, always smiling and happy (especially with beer in one - or both - of his hands), and as a great talent in music. He actually sent me CDs as well as the notes of his compositions.
My he rest in peace (although, knowing Carl, he would probably find that quite boring...).
In deep in sorrow for our loss.
|
Completed Careers