The IEEE LEADERSHIP WIRE

3 March 2005

Index

The IEEE LEADERSHIP WIRE is a report for top-level IEEE volunteers about IEEE affairs and organizational information. It is intended specifically for members of the IEEE Board of Directors, key Board committees and the six major operating boards. The newsletter is sent on or around the first of the month.

CONTENTS:
*SIX IEEE MEMBERS HONORED WITH TOP NAE AWARDS
*JANUARY MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
*IEEE OPENS SEARCH FOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
*NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR STORAGE DEVICE TECH AWARD
*U.S. BANK TO ISSUE NEW OFFICIAL IEEE CREDIT CARD
*IEEE PERSONAL EMAIL ALIAS BLOCKED NINE MILLION VIRUSES IN 2004
*HARDWARE/SOFTWARE DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE TO IEEE MEMBERS
*IN THE NEWS

**SIX IEEE MEMBERS HONORED WITH TOP NAE AWARDS**
Six IEEE members were among eight recipients of National Academy of Engineering (NAE) awards at a ceremony on 21 Feb. in Washington, D.C., USA.

IEEE members Minoru S. Araki, Edward Miller and James Plummer were awarded the 2005 Charles Stark Draper Prize for the design, development and operation of the first space-based Earth observation system. IEEE members Edward J. Coyle (F), Leah H. Jamieson (F) and William C. Oakes received the 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize, named for the IEEE Life Fellow, for the development and dissemination of the Engineering Projects in Community Service program.

Jamieson, who currently serves as the vice president – IEEE Publication Services and Products Board, also was recently among 20 IEEE members elected to NAE.

For more information, visit http://www.nae.edu/nae/naehome.nsf?OpenDatabase.

**JANUARY MEMBERSHIP HIGHLIGHTS**
IEEE membership totaled 374,946 in January -- an increase of 1.8 percent from January 2004. Higher-grade memberships grew 0.1 percent to 299,586, while student memberships increased 9.3 percent to 75,360. For details, read the Membership Development Report at http://www.ieee.org/organizations/rab/md/mdprogrpt.html.

**IEEE OPENS SEARCH FOR EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR**
The IEEE has initiated its search for a new executive director through Russell Reynolds Associates, an executive recruitment firm with extensive experience in association searches. A job description summary has been posted in the IEEE Job Listings at http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/hr/njftpositions.html.

**NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR STORAGE DEVICE TECH AWARD**
The IEEE Awards Board is seeking nominations for the 2006 IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Data Storage Device Technology Award, which is presented for outstanding contributions to the advancement of information storage with emphasis on technical contributions in computer data storage device technology. The recipient will receive a bronze medal, certificate and cash honorarium. The nomination deadline is 1 July.

For nomination forms, visit IEEE Awards online at http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/sums/johnsondsdt.html.

**U.S. BANK TO ISSUE NEW OFFICIAL IEEE CREDIT CARD**
The IEEE has partnered with U.S. Bank to offer a new credit card to U.S. members. The new card, a Visa(R), will replace the Bank One card as the official credit card of the IEEE. As such, the IEEE will collect revenue every time the U.S. Bank card is used.

Card holders will have no annual fee, a low introductory interest rate and the choice of three programs -- the IEEE Visa Platinum, IEEE Cash Back Visa Platinum and IEEE Travel Rewards Visa Platinum.

IEEE members can apply online for the card starting 15 March. For more information, visit IEEE Financial Advantage online at http://www.ieee.org/fap.

**IEEE PERSONAL EMAIL ALIAS BLOCKED NINE MILLION VIRUSES IN 2004**
Users of the IEEE Personal Email Alias were protected from more than nine and a half million viruses in 2004. The service, a free benefit of IEEE membership, also includes an optional tool to block unsolicited commercial email, otherwise known as spam. For more information, visit http://www.ieee.org/alias.

**HARDWARE/SOFTWARE DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE TO IEEE MEMBERS**
IEEE members in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada are eligible for discounts on hardware and software purchases through Insight Inc. as part of the IEEE Financial Advantage Program. Discounts apply to more than 250,000 products from IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Toshiba and other well-known brands. To start browsing, visit http://www.insight.com/ieee, click on your country's flag and set up an account.

Now through 31 March, IEEE members who register for an Insight account will automatically be entered in a sweepstakes for a chance to win a Hewlett Packard iPAQ Pocket PC. No purchase is necessary to win. There will be one winner each from the United States, United Kingdom and Canada.

**IN THE NEWS**
The IEEE, its members and its products and services are mentioned frequently in journalists’ reports on technology and the engineering profession.  Here are just a few recent references.

10 Feb. -- LINUX ELECTRONS (http://www.linuxelectrons.com) reported that James L. Flanagan, a pioneer in the areas of speech analysis, speech transmission and acoustics, has been named to receive the 2005 IEEE Medal of Honor. Flanagan, who was director of the Information Principles Research Laboratory at Bell Laboratories, will receive the Medal at the annual IEEE Honors Ceremony on 18 June in Chantilly, Va., USA.

3 Feb. -- HINDU BUSINESS LINE (Madras, India). Interviewed while he was in India for BIOS 2005, a national seminar on bioinformatics, 2005 IEEE President W. Cleon Anderson predicted "the big bangs in computing and software technology will be followed by the emerging one in biomedical technology." He noted, "Biometrics, biomedicals, information and computer security are all really big prospects."

17 Jan. -- USA TODAY (Washington, D.C.) (http://usatoday.com) announced in its online edition that QUALCOMM Inc., a pioneer in CDMA digital wireless technology, would join TGn Sync, a cross-industry group developing an IEEE 8022.11n standards proposal. Previously, QUALCOMM was responsible for one of the four remaining 802.11n system proposals submitted to the IEEE for the development of the next generation of high-performance local area wireless networks. Similar stories also appeared in the online editions of THE LOS ANGELES TIMES, POPULAR MECHANICS (New York, NY), UNSTRUNG (New York, NY), I-STREET (Chicago) and FRESHNEWS.COM (San Diego), and others.

2 Jan. -- BOSTON (Mass.) SUNDAY GLOBE was one of many publications that continued to cover the results of the annual IEEE-USA Salary Survey.  Other newspapers included TORONTO (Canada) GLOBE & MAIL, ARIZONA REPUBLIC (Phoenix), and DAILY JOURNAL OF COMMERCE (Portland, Ore.), and the online editions of WNBC-TV in New York, KNC-TV in Los Angeles, WMAQ-TV in Chicago, WTVJ-TV in Miami, WSB-TV in Atlanta, KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, WSOC-TV in Charlotte, WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, and CYBER INDIA ONLINE.

20 Jan. -- ELECTRONIC DESIGN. Columnist Dave Bursky predicted the 2005 IEEE International Solid State Circuits Conference, being held 7-10 Feb., would offer "stunning advances to captivate ISSCC attendees." This conference was mentioned in over 200 print or online publications, although most did not identify it as an IEEE event. The 2004 IEEE International Electron Devices (IED) meeting, held in December 2004, was mentioned in CIO TODAY, NIKKEI ELECTRONICS ASIA and KIPLINGER.COM, among many others.