Five Georgia Tech Faculty Members Elected as IEEE Fellows

The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of only six U.S. universities to have five of its faculty members elevated to the rank of IEEE Fellow, the most at any academic institution in the United States. The five Georgia Tech faculty members promoted to IEEE Fellow, effective January 1, 2010, are David A. Bader, Ian T. Ferguson, Richard A. Hartlein, David C. Keezer, and Emmanouil M. Tentzeris.

Chosen by the IEEE board of directors, the IEEE Fellows class of 2010 consists of 309 engineering professionals from around the world. IEEE is the world’s leading professional association for the advancement of technology, and the IEEE grade of Fellow is conferred by the board of directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest.

David A. Bader, executive director for High-Performance Computing and professor in the Computational Science and Engineering Division of the College of Computing, was elevated to Fellow “for contributions to parallel algorithms for combinatorial problems and computational biology.” Bader serves as director of the Sony-Toshiba-IBM Center of Competence for the Cell Broadband Engine Processor, which supports broadening the impact of the Cell Broadband Engine into multiple sectors and industries, including scientific computing, digital content creation, bioinformatics, finance, gaming, and entertainment. He serves on the Internet2 Research Advisory Council and is the general chair for the 24th IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, to be held April 19-23, 2010 in Atlanta. An associate editor for the ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics, IEEE DSOnline, and Parallel Computing, Bader has published over 100 articles in refereed journals and conferences and recently finished two consecutive terms as associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems. He also served as chair of the IEEE Computer Society’s Technical Committee on Parallel Processing from July 2003-June 2007.

Ian T. Ferguson, an adjunct professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), was elected to Fellow “for the development of semiconductor materials and devices for infrared and ultraviolet sensor applications.” Ferguson became chair of the Department of ECE at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in August 2009, after an eight-year tenure as a professor with the School of ECE at Georgia Tech. His research focuses on the development of wide band-gap materials and devices using gallium nitride and zinc oxide and using these materials for illumination, solar power, spintronic, and nuclear detection applications. While at Tech, Ferguson was named a Faculty Fellow in the Sam Nunn Security Program, based in the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy, for his work in the Georgia Tech Focused Research Program in Pioneer Research in Nuclear Detection. He is the founder of the International Conference on Solid State Lighting and is the author of more than 240 refereed journal and conference publications. Ferguson is also a Fellow of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics.

Richard A. Hartlein, director and management board chair for the National Electric Energy Testing Research and Applications Center (NEETRAC), was elected to Fellow “for contributions to standards and analytical techniques for underground power cable systems.” Hartlein works with the NEETRAC team and over 30 NEETRAC industrial members that provide nearly 60 percent of the electricity used in the United States to solve problems in electric energy transmission and distribution. His research focuses on underground power cable systems, including the development of qualification test programs for distribution and transmission cable systems; design and evaluation of efficient, durable, and economical power cables; investigation of cable system failures; and cable systems operations under extreme conditions. Hartlein has served as chair of the IEEE Insulated Conductors Committee (ICC), and led various ICC working groups in the development of guides and standards related to the testing and evaluation of underground cable system components.

David C. Keezer, professor in the School of ECE, was elevated to Fellow “for contributions to high-speed digital test technology.” His areas of research and educational interests are in test methods for high performance electronic systems, design of high speed logic systems, and advanced electronics packaging methods. Keezer leads the High-Speed Test Laboratory, where he and his team develop new high-performance automated test methods and instrumentation. The lab extends automated test capability above 10 Gbps by leveraging state-of-the-art field programmable gate arrays, microelectromechanical systems, gallium arsenide, and indium phosphide technologies. An associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Electronics Packaging Manufacturing, Keezer served on the technical program committee for the IEEE International Test Conference for over 10 years and was the general and technical program chair for the IEEE GHz/Gbps Test Workshop. He has published over 140 articles in refereed journals and conferences and is an IEEE Computer Society Golden Core Member, an honor awarded to longstanding members who have provided outstanding service to the organization.

Emmanouil M. Tentzeris, professor in the School of ECE, was promoted to Fellow “for contributions to three-dimensional conformal integrated devices for wireless communications and sensing.” Tentzeris currently serves as associate director for radio frequency identification (RFID)/sensors research at the Georgia Electronic Design Center, which develops high-speed communications technologies, and was the associate director for RF research and RF alliance leader for the Microsystems Packaging Research Center from 2003-2006. The author of over 320 refereed journal and conference papers, three books, and 17 book chapters, Tentzeris founded and leads a new IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) technical committee on RFID technologies. He is an IEEE MTT-S Distinguished Lecturer for 2010-2012 and has held numerous leadership roles in several IEEE societies, conferences, and workshops. Tentzeris is the associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Advanced Packaging, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, and the International Journal on Antennas and Propagation.