A Happy and Prosperous New Year to everyone!
While I thought 2006 was a good year on balance, I am looking
forward to a great year ahead and hope all of you have a wonderful
2007 as well. Let’s talk a little about the past, present
and future…well, sort of.
Waxing Philosophic…Again
A long time ago a sage individual once told me, “Look in
the direction you are headed, for looking behind only shows you
where you’ve been…” I guess I didn’t fully
appreciate the meaning of the phrase at the time. Lately, I have
come to realize that this little nugget of wisdom is more than
just a philosophical catch phrase. It quite probably and in the
practical sense encourages one to shift their focus on the challenges,
responsibilities and goals ahead of them rather than dwell on
the past or rest on one’s laurels, for what has passed has
passed. I suppose a similar interpretation could be made to almost
any thing or any situation in the context of past, present and
future.
We can’t change the past, but we can influence the future.
I recalled a story in which Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President
of the United States (1861-1865), was asked to conceive a soothing
phrase that could be used to quell the fears and unrest that persisted
as the American Civil War wound down. The catch was that this
phrase was to be worded in such a way so as to apply to almost
any situation and time. President Lincoln’s response to
this challenge was to draw upon the strategy of an Eastern monarch
who similarly charged his sages to invent him a sentence to be
ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all
times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And
this, too, shall pass away.’ Lincoln cleverly responded
to the challenge presented to him by suggesting this same phrase.
How much it expresses!
Where am I going with these themes? The answer is, forward with
a reverent nod to the past while building upon our present accomplishments.
What we have built in the past and what we accomplish now will
influence the directions and actions we take in the future. Let’s
apply this philosophy to the EMC Society. Our Society is vibrant
and active and we will continue to be so in the future. We have
a great legacy to build upon. As I said in my last message, we
are looking ahead to expand into new areas both technically and
geographically. As we look back on our accomplishments over the
first fifty years, we can be proud of the foundation that has
been set in place by our Founders and which we continue to build
upon. Many new and exciting things are on the horizon as we go
into our next fifty years as a Society. You’ve read in my
past messages about our plans for the future. These include new
membership models and increased chapter development worldwide,
holding multiple conferences in a given year, developing new standards
and technical committees that focus on emerging technologies,
and developing a next generation of EMC educational products and
web services. These will further ingrain our presence globally
as well as along the cutting-edge technology front.
As we progress forward with these plans over the next several
years, we will remain vigilant of problematic factors that could
detract from achieving our goals for the Society in the coming
years. We will adapt as necessary to keep relevant with the latest
technologies and be responsive to our members’ needs. We
will work diligently to overcome problematic areas and to abandon
practices that simply do not provide a return on our investment.
Although the tough times are not totally behind us, again when
you compare membership levels now to where they were just a few
years ago at the start of the millennium, this too, shall pass
away as we pursue a renaissance period of growth and new directions
into the next fifty years. This will be accomplished by redefining
our goals and periodically revising our strategies. The key is
to be adaptive, roll with the punches, and remain cognizant of
the business dynamics behind the scenes. Yes, running the EMC
Society is very much akin to running a corporate business. Indeed,
our Long-Range Planning Committee is charged with the job of developing
and implementing strategic plans that will ensure the EMC Society
remains on a successful path in future years. I’ll say it
again: the best is yet to come!
Outreach…Synergy
A modest success story, which incidentally fits into our strategic
plan to enhance the presence of the EMC Society at non-traditional
events, was our recent involvement in a conference sponsored by
one of our ‘sister societies,’ namely the 2007 Radio
and Wireless Symposium (RWS’07) held in Long Beach, CA on
8-12 January. The Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Society
was the primary sponsor of this symposium. Under an MOU with MTT/RWS’07,
a workshop on “EMC Aspects of Wireless and Cell Phone Technology”
was organized by Dan Hoolihan, Past President of the EMC Society,
Karl Varian, Past President of the MTT Society, and yours truly.
This was one of the first, very recent attempts at collaborating
with one of our sister societies in an official capacity. The
success of this was modest from the standpoint of the relatively
small number of attendees, but outstanding in terms of the content
and quality of the topics presented. Clearly, we still have a
lot of work ahead of us to underscore the Society’s role
and the importance of EMC in these other disciplines. Nonetheless,
we plan to put the EMC Society “brand” at sister society
conferences when and where it makes sense by sponsoring more specialized
workshops on EMC-related topics. This is all part of the forward-looking
strategy to spread the EMC message and expand our presence in
non-traditional conference venues.
Along similar lines, we have outreached to other non-IEEE groups
as well. For instance, I was involved in organizing a special
session devoted to computational electromagnetics and code validation
for EMC applications for the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association
(AMTA) conference held in October 2006 in Austin, TX. This was
done in cooperation with the Applied Computational Electromagnetics
Society (ACES). Both John Norgard, Vice President of Technical
Services and Bob Scully, EMC Society Director, as well as other
EMC members attended the conference. You will be hearing more
about such outreach efforts on behalf of non-IEEE organizations
and technical conferences in the future.
Hawaii Five-0: Be There, Aloha!
Dan Hoolihan continues to be the driving force behind the 50th
anniversary activities planned for the 2007 International Symposium
on EMC in Honolulu, Hawaii on 8-13 July. Dan’s article in
this edition of the Newsletter briefly covers some of the commemorative
events and special activities that are anticipated, which includes
spotlighting several of our founders and past presidents at the
50th Anniversary Awards Banquet to be held on Friday, 13 July
in Turtle Bay on the North Shore of Oahu. Round trip bus transportation
will be provided from/to the various hotels. This will offer a
great opportunity to get a “free” tour of parts of
the island along the way, including the exotic inland and coastal
areas of Oahu. It is important that you make your plane reservations
in advance to stay over Friday and into the weekend if possible
to be part of the festivities. This is expected to be a big event!
So be there, aloha!!
Adding to the excitement and regality of the 2007 EMC Symposium
and 50th anniversary celebration, Dr. Leah Jamieson, the current
IEEE President, will give the keynote address during the plenary
session. She will also present a number of special IEEE awards
including the IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award to our own Dr.
Clayton Paul of Mercer University, and the 2007 IEEE Electromagnetics
Award to Dr. Carl Baum of the University of New Mexico (for fundamental
contributions to electromagnetic theory and to the design of transient
antennas). Look for a tribute article on Dr. Baum by John Norgard
in this issue of the Newsletter. Dr. Baum’s award was co-sponsored
by both the EMC and the Antennas and Propagation Societies. At
that time, President Jamieson will also acknowledge our current
class of IEEE Fellows who were sponsored by the EMC Society. Congratulations
go out to Flavio Canavero, Jim Drewniak, Antonio Orlandi, Andrew
Podgorski, and Masamitsu Tokuda for being elevated to IEEE Fellow
class of 2007!
Old Friends, New Friends
Moving on to more good news, I would like to extend a warm welcome
to our newly-elected Board of Directors Members whose three-year
term began on 1 January 2007. The incoming Directors are Bob Goldblum,
Todd Hubing, Bob Scully, Dave Staggs, Don Sweeney, and Takeo Yoshino.
Meet our new Board Members in an article featured about them in
this Newsletter. By the way, Bob Scully, Dave Staggs, and Don
Sweeney are continuing into their second consecutive three-year
term. I would also like to recognize our other outgoing Board
Members who served us well over the past several years. Among
them are Barry Wallen and Suichi Nitta. Barry, of course, continues
on as the Vice President of Conference Services for the EMC Society.
During our last officer elections in November 2006, Elya Joffe
was voted in as the EMC Society President-elect and Dave Staggs
was elected as our new Vice President of Member Services. Elya
is the Society’s first President from outside the United
States. This is an important milestone for us. We wish him well
as he slowly begins to take the reigns over from me starting 1
January 2008. I also want to thank Elya for all the hard work,
dedication, sacrifice and travel he has undertaken over the past
several years and continues to do on behalf of promoting EMC Society
globalization. Dave is taking over for Elya and I am confident
he will be as successful in leading the charge for new membership
programs and chapter development in the coming years.
Additionally, we welcome several new Distinguished Lecturers to
the EMC Society DL Program for the term 2007-2008. The new DLs
are Dr. Erping Li of Singapore, Dr. Jun Fan from San Diego, CA
and Dr. Franz Schlagenhaufer of Australia. This slate fulfills
an important strategic objective which is to enhance our presence
and provide an “local” voice for the EMC Society in
Region 10. This was successfully done in Region 8 in recent years.
Similar plans are envisioned for Region 9 in the near future.
An Invitation
In the coming year, we will be actively seeking additional Board
of Directors candidates from Regions 8, 9, and 10 for the term
commencing 1 January 2008. The goal is to ensure a balanced Board
membership that includes multiple representatives from all IEEE
regions. Anyone who is interested in running for a Board position
from any region may submit their nomination. A nomination form
is contained in this edition of the Newsletter. Again, I encourage
candidates from Regions 8-10 to step forward and express their
interest in running.
2007: A Busy Year for EMC Ahead
In addition to our annual symposium in Hawaii, there are a number
of other EMC or EMC-related conferences scheduled for 2007. For
instance, EMC Zurich in Munich will be held 24-28 September, the
EMC Europe Workshop in Paris is scheduled for 14-15 June, and
the International Conference on Electromagnetic Near-Field Characterization
will take place 27-29 June in St. Louis, MO. There are several
other EMC-related events as well.
Next Time
In the next edition of the Newsletter, I will be revisiting the
topic of new, emerging technologies. In particular, we plan to
have an abbreviated follow-up cover story on the topic of “Electromagnetic
Diversity.” I also hope to provide more information on our
plans to establish at least one new technical committee (TC) on
emerging technologies this calendar year.
Also, in my next message I will be sharing some additional thoughts
on leadership for the future and our push to get members of all
ages from the student, chapter, and Society ranks to actively
pursue leadership opportunities within the EMC Society. This push
is clearly meant to pave the way for our future leaders and to
offer new people a chance to interact with and learn from our
current group of seasoned veterans. Of course, this will give
our up and coming leaders an opportunity to set the course for
the future of the EMC Society to take us into new and exciting
directions. I can’t wait!
Tapestry
Well, in closing I hope I have done justice in weaving together
the themes I presented earlier. I have talked about the importance
of looking ahead, not dwelling on but giving due respect to the
past, ringing in the new and overcoming the problematic issues
we face in the now. As for the EMC Society, the future is now!
As always, I would like to hear from you. Please feel free to
contact me at a.l.drozd@ieee.org.
Until the next time…EMC
President’s
Message