Editor’s Note: Recently the IEEE
Media Department asked the EMC Newsletter Editors for background
information on their respective careers. Upon reading that of
our Technical Editor, Bob Olsen, your Editor-in-Chief wanted to
share his extensive background with the readers of the EMC Newsletter.
Professor Olsen is quite accomplished! As you will see, the EMC
Newsletter greatly benefits from the capabilities of its Technical
Editor!
Robert G. Olsen is Associate Dean of the College of Engineering
and Architecture for Undergraduate Programs and Student Services
and the Boeing Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering
at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA. He was
born in Brooklyn, New York in 1946 and spent his early years living
in several towns in Northern New Jersey. He received the BS degree
in electrical engineering from Rutgers University, New Brunswick,
New Jersey in 1968 and the MS and Ph.D. degrees in electrical
engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
in 1970 and 1974, respectively. For the latter two degrees, his
area of specialization was electromagnetic theory.
Prior to joining the faculty at Washington State University, Prof.
Olsen worked for Radio Station WOR in New York City and for Westinghouse
Georesearch Laboratory in Boulder, Colorado. He has been a member
of the electrical engineering faculty at Washington State University
since 1973. During that time he has been an NSF Faculty Fellow
at GTE Laboratories in Waltham, Massachusetts, a visiting scientist
at ABB Corporate Research in Västerås, Sweden and at
the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, California
and a Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Denmark.
His research interests include electromagnetic interference from
power lines, the electromagnetic environment of power lines, electromagnetic
wave propagation, electromagnetic compatibility and electromagnetic
scattering. More specifically, his work has involved such topics
as electromagnetic propagation on wires above the earth, modeling
of corona generated electromagnetic interference from high voltage
transmission lines, design of optimized high voltage components,
exposure assessment for humans in ELF electric and magnetic fields
from power lines, shielding of ELF electric and magnetic fields,
high and low frequency electromagnetic scattering from bodies
of complex shape, design of antennas for mobile communication,
EMC studies of optical fiber cables and RF Survey meters in the
power line environment and development of instruments for measuring
transmission line conductor sag. His work in these areas has resulted
in approximately 75 publications in refereed journals and approximately
150 conference publications/presentations. He is also one of the
authors of the recently revised AC Transmission Line Reference
Book – 200 kV and Above which is published by EPRI. His work
has been supported by the Boeing Defense and Space Group, the
Bonneville Power Administration, the Electric Power Research Institute,
the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Navy and other agencies.
He has served as a consultant to numerous government agencies
and private companies on the subject of electromagnetic fields
and power systems. He served on a National Academy of Science
committee to evaluate the U.S. Navy’s Extremely Low Frequency
Communications System Ecological Monitoring Program. In addition,
he served as an expert witness on exposure assessment in several
legal cases involving power line electromagnetic fields and health
effects. Finally, he has served for the past ten years as a member
of EPRI’s Science Advisory Committee on electromagnetic fields.
Another area in which he has done expert witnessing is on radar
speed measurement.
He is a Fellow of the IEEE and presently serves as Technical Editor
of the IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society Newsletter,
and as Co-Technical Program Chair of the 2005 Electromagnetic
Compatibility Conference in Zurich, Switzerland. He is also the
past United States National Committee representative to the International
Council on Large Electrical Systems (CIGRE) Study Committee 36
(Electromagnetic Compatibility) and past chair of the IEEE Power
Engineering Society AC Fields and Corona Effects Working Groups.
In addition, he is past Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions
on Electromagnetic Compatibility and Radio Science.
Since 2003, he has served as the Associate Dean for Undergraduate
Programs and Student Services at Washington State University.
In this position, he is responsible for a number of administrative
matters including oversight of the accreditation process, recruitment
and retention of students, community college visitation, management
of the scholarship program and services to university and state
committees. In addition to these activities, he has created an
Engineering Entrepreneurship Internship program in cooperation
with the College of Business that exposes engineering students
to the realities of the business aspects of engineering and better
prepares them to work in the changing global marketplace. Given
the global nature of the economy, he has also worked to make it
possible for engineering students to get general education credit
for the study of foreign language. Finally, he has (with NSF support
and in conjunction with the University of Washington and several
community colleges) begun a major effort to recruit students into
engineering who have not traditionally considered or entered the
study of engineering.
He and his wife Marsha have found Pullman to be a great place
to raise their three children. The only downside of life in this
small rural town is the constant complaining about Pullman’s
“rush minute” that occurs shortly after 5 PM on weekdays.
In his spare time, he studies and gives talks on the history of
railroads in Eastern Washington State and serves as an officer
in his church. EMC
