1/11/2011
Engineering at Illinois alumnus Gordon W. Day (BS 1966, MS 1967, PhD, 1970, Electrical Engineering) has been elected president of IEEE for 2012.
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Engineering at Illinois alumnus Gordon W. Day (BS 1966, MS 1967, PhD, 1970, Electrical Engineering) has been elected president of IEEE for 2012.
Day, who resides in Boulder, Colorado, is an electrical engineer with experience in research, management, and public policy. He will become the 50th President of IEEE on January 1, 2012 and will also serve as CEO. He will succeed 2011 IEEE President Moshe Kam, Department Head and Robert Quinn Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa. Day will serve on the Board of Directors as IEEE President-elect for 2011.
“Over the past century or so, most advances in quality-of-life have been achieved through technology. Our members were responsible for many of those gains,” Day commented upon assuming his new role. “Today, IEEE’s job is to help technologists continue that history of achievement, in a world where technology is advancing ever more rapidly and innovation is the key to prosperity around the globe.”
Day’s technical specialty is the combination of optics and electronics. He spent most of his career in research and management at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, where he founded and led the NIST Optoelectronics Division. His personal research ranged from fundamental optical measurements to the development of standards for optical communication and new concepts in optical and electronic instrumentation. He has been a professor adjoint at the University of Colorado and a visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton (UK), and has served on many industry, government, and academic advisory groups.
Growing up on a farm in Winchester, Illinois, Day decided to pursue an engineering degree at the University of Illinois.
“I wound up going to the U of I thinking I was going to major in some kind of engineering,” he said. “I decided on electrical engineering after I got there when I discovered the U of I was one of the best electrical engineering schools in the country.”
Day said the things he learned while a student at Illinois helped him obtain the success he has had with his career. While a student he worked with the late Oscar Gaddy, professor emeritus who was a pioneer in laser technology and the frequency modulation of light.
“I think the experience I had at the University of Illinois was a great experience,” he said. “It provided me with the tools to succeed in a lot of areas.”
After retiring from the bureau of NIST, Day worked as a science adviser for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).
“I worked in the government for well over 30 years. I knew the executive branch quite well,” he said. “I had always been interested in what happens in congress. I found myself with the opportunity to spend a year there, supported by an IEEE fellowship.”
Day said he learned a lot about the public policy process and advocacy.
“For most companies, policy has become an important part of their portfolio,” he said. “It’s a much different environment from a purely technical job, but it’s one where engineers can play an important role.”
During his tenure as IEEE president, Day intends to tackle several policy issues, including encouraging the investment of more funding in science and technology, improving the science and math education of pre-college students, and high unemployment numbers.
“I’m concerned that the young people in the US are not as well educated in science and math as students in other parts of the world,” he said. “I think we need to look at the type of things students are learning pre-college.”
Day believes that any country wanting to maintain its well-being in the 21st century will need to encourage technological innovation.
“The U.S. has lost that edge that we once had. I think that any country that wants to maintain its prosperity in the 21st century is going to have to do it by encouraging technological innovation whatever that may be,” he said. “In order to do so they will need a very well-educated technical workforce, because those are the people who create ideas that really change the world.”
The number of unemployed engineers is a chief concern of Day’s, which he said has reached record levels in the past couple of years.
“The U.S. needs to find ways to stimulate creation of jobs for applied technologists, engineers, and scientists,” he said.
Day said at the end of his tenure, he hopes that he would have done his best to help the IEEE serve the next generation of engineers as well as it did his generation.
“I want it to be a stronger global organization, I want it to speak out assertively on behalf of the profession,” he said. “That will be the major thing I will try to do.”
Day has served IEEE previously in many leadership capacities, including president of the IEEE Photonics Society and of IEEE-USA, which supports the career and public policy interests of IEEE members in the U.S. He is a Fellow of IEEE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Optical Society of America, and the Institute of Physics.
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Contact: Francine Tardo, IEEE, 732/465-5865.
Writers: Shawn Adderly, ECE ILLINOIS and Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716.