Hall of Fame 2019 Inaugural Class and Ceremony

Paul Anderson served in World War II in the Army Air Corps before enrolling at Iowa State College. After graduation, he first worked as an electrical engineer for Iowa Public Service Company, and then he returned to ISU as a faculty member and helped to establish the Power Affiliate Research Program, now called the Electric Power Research Center. He also created power engineering as a specialty area of graduate study and started the Midwest Power Symposium. Anderson is well known for seven books he authored on electric power and energy systems engineering. He was a NSF Science Faculty Fellow and an IEEE Fellow and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his contributions.

Clifford Berry built his first radio by age 11, and he went on to become the co-inventor of the world’s first electronic digital computer. During his time as a student at Iowa State College, Berry worked with Professor John Atanasoff, and by 1940, Berry and Atanasoff had created a working prototype of the first digital computer: the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC). This early invention led to the development of the computers people use around the world today. Berry received ISU’s highest honor, the Distinguished Achievement Citation, the first time it had been given posthumously. Berry also worked in a defense-related position for the Consolidated Engineering Corporation, where he became Chief Physicist, Assistant Director of Research, Director of Engineering of the Analytical and Control Division, and Technical Director.

Warren B. Boast was an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at ISU and served as department head from 1955-75. Together with Professor John D. “Jack” Ryder, Boast designed and built the first 10-kilohertz AC network analyzer, used commercially by many Midwest utilities. Boast and Ryder also designed ISU’s Electrical Engineering Building, now Coover Hall. Boast authored four books and had several patents. He received the Faculty Citation Award from the ISU Alumni Association and the Anson Marston Medal from ISU; he was a Fellow of IEEE and the Illuminating Engineering Society, and he was President of IEEE Education Society from 1970-71. Today, an undergraduate teaching award at ISU is named in Boast’s honor.

Robert K. Brayton is widely recognized as one of the top theoretical contributors to the electrical and computer engineering field. As a researcher at IBM, he developed numerical techniques for solving sparse differential equations, which have been applied in products used around the world, including in personal computers, fax machines, and telephones. His accomplishments include: Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), Fellow of IEEE, and Fellow of AAAS. Brayton authored many books in the areas of the analysis of nonlinear networks, simulation and optimization of electrical circuits, logic synthesis, and formal design verification. He received ISU’s Anson Marston Medal and Outstanding Alumnus Award, among many other honors.

Jean H. Brittain was a founder and CEO of Calimetrix, a company dedicated to the development of quantitative MRI test objects. Previously, she was a Senior Scientist at the University of Wisconsin. She also spent 13 years at GE Healthcare’s Applied Science Lab (ASL). While at ASL, she founded the ASLWest facility and research group and was Chief Scientist and Manager of a scientific team that collaborated with leading academic researchers to develop new MRI applications, some of which are part of GE product and are used in patient care worldwide. She completed her M.S., Ph.D., and postdoctoral studies at Stanford University, was granted 19 U.S. patents, and was elected a Fellow of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Alice A. Churchill Camerlengo was a pioneer. While breaking male scholastic records, she was the first woman to graduate in electrical engineering from ISU, where she received the Pi Mu Epsilon calculus award and the Phi Kappa Phi high scholarship award. She was the first woman engineer to be hired at the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, General Electric plant, where she worked in the power transformer division and high voltage laboratory. In 1937, the Albuquerque Journal Digest of Science and Invention stated that her experiments gave promise of developing along the lines of Nikola Tesla and others. Churchill Camerlengo was a trailblazer who empowered women to know that if “Little Alice” could do it, they could do it, too.

Mervin S. Coover served as department chair of Electrical Engineering at Iowa State College from 1935-1954. He served in World War I, and during World War II, he oversaw ISU’s Electrical Naval Training School. Coover was the associate dean of the College of Engineering from 1956-57 and the acting dean of the College of Engineering from 1958-59. He oversaw ISU’s merger of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) and the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) and was instrumental in the 1963 national merger of AIEE and IRE into what is now IEEE. To honor his service and dedication to the university, the Electrical Engineering Building was renamed Coover Hall in 1969.

John D. (Jack) Cosgrove made a world of difference in the electronics industry and in the lives of many students. After graduating from ISU, Cosgrove went to work as a junior engineer for Collins Radio Company, becoming vice president and general manager of the Defense Division. He went on to become president and CEO of the company, then named Rockwell Collins. When he retired, Rockwell Collins created an ISU endowed scholarship in his name. Cosgrove served on many boards across ISU; he was a governor of the ISU Foundation Board and received the Alumni Association’s Distinguished Achievement Citation. He and his wife, Dilla, were named Parents of the Year in 1986 and Cy’s Favorite Alums in 1987 as well as being members of the ISU Order of the Knoll President’s Circle and Campanile Society.

Tunç Doluca joined Maxim Integrated Products as a design engineer, rising through the ranks to become president and CEO of the company. In his early career, he designed over 40 products, ranging from data converters to breakthrough power-management products, and contributed to the growth of Maxim to $2.5B in revenue. In 2011, Tunç and Lale Doluca created the Doluca Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering at ISU to advance the mission and vision of the department and to make a major impact on the college’s ability to recruit and retain faculty. The professorship is awarded to faculty with preferences for specialized teaching or research in analog and mixed signal integrated circuit design.

Kathryn A. Engholm had a 33-year career at Tektronix, Inc. She was hired to work on her dream job, to help develop the first portable digital oscilloscope. The majority of her career was in defining and designing new products and platforms, gaining her the titles of Principal Engineer and Tektronix Master Inventor. Engholm worked on six major programs from start to finish, all of which delivered new instrumentation platforms and successful oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, TV transmitter testers, cellular base station testers, real-time spectrum analyzers, and arbitrary waveform generators to market. She received over 20 patents for her work in signal processing, measurement algorithms, and data visualization.

Bob O. Evans was a computer pioneer who led the development of compatible computers that changed the industry. At IBM, he led the team that developed the System/360, an entirely new approach to mainframe computing. The System/360 was the first total family of compatible computers and the first that enabled different applications to run on the same system simultaneously. Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan honored Evans with the National Medal of Technology in recognition of his work on the System/360. Later, he was presented with a Computer Pioneer Award from the Computing Society of IEEE. Evans was an IEEE Fellow and a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

Abdel-Aziz A. Fouad was a pioneer in the field of power systems dynamics and stability, in his contributions to academic research, collaboration between academia and the power industry, and early explorations of technology and social change. Amongst numerous recognitions, Fouad was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (NAE), received the Anson Marston Medal from the ISU Alumni Foundation, and was a Fellow of IEEE. He coauthored two widely read books and taught multiple classes, including the creation of industry-oriented power system engineering courses linked with computer applications. He co-founded ISU’s Power Affiliate Research Program in 1963, now known as ISU’s Electric Power Research Center.

Murray J. Harpole began his career with the Manhattan Project and served as project director in the development of the “Alvin” research submarine. He founded Pentair, Inc., a major international processing equipment company. Harpole served on the boards of the ISU Foundation and the Electrical Engineering Advisory Committee. He and his wife have supported ISU in many ways, including the creation of the Murray and Ruth Harpole Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Murray and Ruth Harpole Graduate Fellowship, and they made the leadership gift for the renovation of Coover Hall. Harpole received ISU’s Professional Achievement Citation and the Anson Marston Medal.

Edwin C. Jones, Jr., was known for his passion and leadership for improving engineering education. He earned a B.S. at West Virginia University, DIC at Imperial College (London), and Ph.D. at the University of Illinois, where he was an Assistant Professor before moving to ISU. He was heavily involved in ASEE, the IEEE Education Society, and ABET, and he was Director of Engineering Distance Education for over a decade. For 20 years, he was academic advisor for the ECE honors program, and some of those students established the Ed Jones Scholarship. He received the Linton E. Grinter Distinguished Service Award from ABET, the Meritorious Service Award from the IEEE Education Society, and the Accreditation Activities Award from IEEE Educational Activities Board. He was elected a Fellow of IEEE, ASEE, AAAS, and ABET.

Jerry R. Junkins served as president, chairman, and CEO of Texas Instruments, spending most of his career in the defense business as a manufacturing engineer and supervisor. He was responsible for radar projects, the Shrike missile program, and assembly and test functions; he oversaw the company’s data and industrial systems, consumer products, and worldwide information systems network. Junkins led TI’s efforts to gain recognition for the value of intellectual property and initiated strategies that changed the industry and played a role in revitalizing America’s competitive position. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and was awarded the ISU Anson Marston Medal.

Peter V. Loeppert, who received his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Purdue, had a career-long record of invention, development, and successful commercialization of microelectronic products. He had integrated circuit product development experience with Monolithic Sensors, Gould Electronics Corporate Research Laboratory, and McDonnell Douglas. As vice president of research and development at Knowles Acoustics, he led the development and commercialization of Knowles’ silicon microphone and created the first MOSbased microphone circuits now used in 80% of all hearing aids. Loeppert received the ISU Professional Achievement Citation in Engineering and was awarded many patents for microelectronic circuits, devices, and processes.

Howard Otto Lorenzen was known as the “Father of Electronic Warfare.” In his 33-year career at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), he led the Galactic Radiation and Background program, the earliest successful American reconnaissance satellite and the first electronic intelligence satellite. He was the NRL’s first superintendent of electronic warfare and led the development of defense equipment for naval aircraft to guard against guided missiles. He helped develop America’s first portable radar equipment, and his electronic countermeasures research helped immensely during the Cold War. In 2010, the U.S. Navy named the USNS Lorenzen, a missile range instrumentation ship, after him.

Elham B. Makram had a career spanning industry experience in power system planning and academia representation as a distinguished professor of power engineering and director of the Electric Power Research Association at Clemson University. Her work was in the fields of computer modeling and simulation of power systems, renewable energy, power system quality, distributed generation, and smart grid applications. She received the Clemson University Alumni Award for outstanding achievement in research, the NSF Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers, and the SWE Distinguished Engineering Educator Award, among many other honors. Makram was elected as Fellow of IEEE.

Robert L. Martin was an ISU student when he joined the Army Air Corps, enrolling in the military’s Black Pilot Program. He served in World War II with the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African Americans to fly for the U.S. Armed Forces, whose efforts saw black pilots integrated into the Air Force. Martin received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with 6 Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Congressional Gold Medal. After honorable military discharge in 1945, he rose to the rank of Captain in the reserves. Though many companies were not hiring black engineers, he became a draftsman with the Chicago Park District and went on to a 37-year career with the City of Chicago as a street lighting engineer, rising to Electrical Design Engineer. He encouraged others to pursue aviation and engineering.

Edward R. McCracken is best known for his time spent as the president and CEO of Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI). Under his leadership, SGI grew as a technical giant, pioneering computer hardware for virtual reality and graphics applications. McCracken was awarded the National Medal of Technology, the Stanford Business School Entrepreneurial Company of the Year, and the National Computer Graphics Association Executive of the Year awards. McCracken also won the ISU Foundation Campanile Award and received the ISU Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award. McCracken also served as Chairman of the board of directors for the Philanthropic Relief, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for the economically disadvantaged all around the world.

James L. Melsa served as dean of engineering at ISU from 1995-2004, a time of new record enrollments and increases in research expenditures and endowed professorships. As dean, Melsa led a transformation that included construction of the Engineering Teaching and Research Complex, revamping the undergraduate curricula, and expanding internships, co-ops, and research and technology transfer activities. Melsa also held three vice-president roles at Tellabs, Inc., a global supplier to the telecommunications industry. Melsa was recognized as one of the nation’s outstanding professors in control and estimation theory, speech encoding, and digital signal processing. He was elected as Fellow of IEEE and ASEE.

Anthony N. Michel was a professor at ISU for 16 years. Michel also spent seven years in the aerospace industry and was chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame, eventually becoming dean of their College of Engineering. He authored 12 textbooks and monographs and was a visiting professor at several universities in Germany and Austria. Michel was elected a Fellow of IEEE and served as president of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. He received the IEEE Charles A. Desoer Technical Achievement Award, the IEEE Centennial Medal, the IEEE Golden Jubilee Medal, and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal. Michel was named a Foreign Member of the Russian Academy of Engineering.

James W. Nilsson served in World War II before attending ISU, where as a faculty member he taught electrical engineering coursework for nearly four decades. One of the most prominent and celebrated teachers in the department’s history, Nilsson often used computers to create animated models of solutions of equations as teaching aids in his courses. An IEEE Fellow, Nilsson earned the prestigious IEEE Undergraduate Teaching Award. He wrote several textbooks. His classic textbook, Electric Circuits, was one of the most widely adopted books in the field for well over two decades. He received the McGraw-Hill/Jacob Millman Award and the Standard Oil Outstanding Teaching Award.

After serving as an electronics officer in World War II, James R. Palmer began his career at General Electric developing a mechanical rectifier, and he worked for several other companies before being asked to join C-COR Electronics and manage its subsequent growth. Palmer is attributed to building C-COR into an industry giant in the area of CATV, and C-COR led the way in bandwidth expansion as cable TV revolutionized America. Palmer retired as C-COR’s chairman and president. Along with his wife Barbara, he established the Palmer Professorship in Electrical Engineering, the Palmer Department Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the James R. and Barbara R. Palmer Graduate Fellowship in Electrical Engineering.

Arthur V. Pohm co-invented Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory (MRAM), a revolutionary computer memory technology, and he received many patents for inventing different types of magnetic storage elements. As a faculty member at ISU, he developed a program to improve electronics research and education in the ECpE department, resulting in the Affiliate Program in Solid-State Electronics. This program, led by Pohm, established a graduate education and research program in solid-state electronics. Pohm was elected a Fellow of IEEE for his significant contributions in the development of thin magnetic films as computer memory elements, and for his inspired leadership as an effective researcher, teacher, and mentor to young faculty.

Gerald J. Posakony was known as the “Pioneer of Medical Ultrasound Technology.” He received the American Association of Engineering Societies’ John Fritz Medal, the highest award in the engineering profession for scientific achievement, for his pioneering contributions to the fields of ultrasonics, medical diagnostic ultrasound, and nondestructive evaluation technologies. He dedicated much of his long career at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to designing, developing, and deploying first-of-a-kind nondestructive evaluation inspection and measurement systems. His systems for investigating disease processes served as the basis for most medical diagnostic ultrasound systems.

After serving in World War II, Richard K. Richards spent seven years at IBM. Though trained as a theoretical physicist, he played a key role in developing fundamental concepts that enabled IBM to emerge as a leader in the commercialization of digital computers. This helped form the underpinnings of basic concepts used in the computer industry for decades. Richards was awarded 28 U.S. patents, and he was one of the first authors to write textbooks focusing on the operation of computers. He published five books on the subject, including Arithmetic Operations in Digital Computers. Richards’ statement that “the ancestry of all electronic digital systems appear to be traceable to…the ABC” was key evidence in the court case that recognized the Atanasoff-Berry Computer as the first digital computing device.

After working at General Electric, John D. Ryder joined the ISU faculty. He authored seven textbooks in the fields of electronics and circuits. With former department chair Warren B. Boast, Ryder constructed the AC network analyzer that power utilities used to simulate entire transmission and generating systems; this relationship resulted in ISU having more EE doctoral graduates employed in industry than any other institution during the 1950s. Ryder was instrumental in designing the ISU Electrical Engineering Building, now Coover Hall. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers, now part of IEEE, and he received the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award. The John Ryder Professorship in Engineering honors his impact.

Wendell Sander is known as the Father of the Apple III computer. During the 1970s, Sander became the 16th employee at Apple Inc. after impressing Apple co-founder Steve Jobs by demonstrating a Star Trek game on an Apple I computer. Hired to work on the Apple II, Sander went on to design the Apple III, then on to help start and work with several Silicon Valley startups. He later returned to Apple to work with his son Brian Sander, a 1985 ISU EE graduate and a director at Apple. The father-son team worked on iPod and iPhone circuits, including volume control on Apple earbuds. Before working at Apple, Wendell Sander spent 13 years at Fairchild Semiconductor R&D Laboratory as a department head, where he developed some of the first semiconductor memory components and systems. He received over 100 patents.

Richard H. Stanley was a recipient of the ISU Anson Marston medal and namesake of the Stanley Chair in Interdisciplinary Engineering. In 1956, he created the Stanley Foundation, which focused on fostering world peace with freedom and justice. As a professional engineer, Stanley spent his entire career with Stanley Consultants, Inc., providing engineering services worldwide. He served as President of the Iowa Engineering Society and of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Iowa. He was awarded the Hoover Medal by the Hoover Medal Board of Award; the Distinguished Award of Merit from the American Council of Engineering Companies; and the Herbert Hoover Centennial Award from the Iowa Engineering Society.

Vijay Vittal was the recipient of the prestigious Presidential Young Investigator (PYI) Award, given by the U.S. President for his pioneering research. He served as the director of ISU’s Electric Power Research Center and authored multiple influential textbooks on power system analysis. He was elected as Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and Fellow of IEEE . Vittal received numerous awards from professional societies and from ISU, including the Outstanding Power Engineering Educator Award and the Prabha S. Kundur Power System Dynamics and Control Award, both from the Power and Energy Society of IEEE, and the ISU Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research.

After joining Hewlett-Packard in 1967, Thomas M. Whitney led a team of engineers that invented the world’s first hand-held electronic scientific calculator, the HP-35. Named for its 35 buttons, the HP-35 was the first pocket calculator able to perform trigonometric functions. In 1978, Whitney joined Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak as one of the earliest employees of Apple Computer Inc. Whitney served as the executive vice president for engineering and helped to develop the Apple II, the world’s first accessible and highly successful personal computer. After his death, his wife, Donna Whitney, established the Thomas M. Whitney Professorship of Electrical and Computer Engineering.