In the recent IEEE elections, Prof. Roger Pollard, a former Chair of the UKRI Section and a long-term active member and former President of the IEEE Microwaves Theory and Techniques Society was elected by a large majority as Technical Activities Vice-President Elect for 2009.  This is a very high-level position in IEEE, and the first time that it has been filled by a member from Region 8.   Roger is Dean of Engineering at Leeds University in England, where he was previously Head of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering.

The Annual IEEE Honors Ceremony was held in Québec City on 20th September 2008, at IEEE Sections Congress, before an audience which included IEEE members from all the 10 IEEE Regions and representatives from almost every IEEE Section.   This was the first time that the Honors Ceremony had taken place at a Sections Congress, which brought this important and spectacular event to a much wider audience than usual.

Dr. Maurice Papo, from the France Section, a former Director of Region 8 received the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award (given for outstanding service to IEEE).     Others honoured at the ceremony included Tim Berners-Lee who is credited with the initial ideas (while at CERN in Switzerland) from which the World Wide Web developed, and Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation, who received the IEEE Medal of Honour, who has become a household name among technical people for the ‘Moore’s Law’ which in 1965 defined properties of the semiconductor industry which led to its universal impact on so much of all our lives today.

The photo shows Maurice Papo and his wife, just after the presentation of the Award.

During the 2008 IEEE Annual Election, the Region 8 members elected Marko Delimar as their next Director. Marko will serve as Region 8 Director-Elect in 2009 and 2010 and Region 8 Director in 2011 and 2012. For more details please visit www.ieee.org/elections.

Marko is a Professor at University of Zagreb. His many previous IEEE volunteer duties included IEEE Region 8 Vice-Chair - Student Activities (2005-2006) and IEEE Region 8 Vice-Chair - Membership Activities (2007-2008). He is currently also serving on the IEEE 125th Anniversary Committee, IEEE Alternative Membership Models Committee and IEEE Student Activities Committee.

The IEEE Region 8 Director in 2009 and 2010 will be Józef Modelski who was elected in the 2007 IEEE Annual Election.

The IEEE renewal season just started.  To access the new easy-to-use online renewal system, click on this link - http://ieee.org/renew. If you or your colleagues encounter any problems with the renewal, please let me know.

While you renew your membership please do not forget to donate to the IEEE Region 8 Fund. All donations can be found under “Donate to IEEE” just under “Your Cart” in the renewal system. Please forward this information to your friends and colleagues.

IEEE members in University of Sharjah, Ghassan Dabbour, Ahmed Nahidh Alghefari, and Mohamed EL-Khatib have been participating in organizing a conference hosted by Vision Club (www.myvisionclub.com) in the University to combat poverty as what’s known by "Blog Action Day Poverty 08".

Thousands of bloggers worldwide were addressed the tough subject of poverty. Dozens of poverty relief organizations, companies and popular blogs are participating.

United Nations Development Programme represented by Mrs. Naoual Driouich - The Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP in the UAE was participating in this day to show statistics from the United Nations established figures and discussed what the United Nations is doing in the fight against poverty. She went to explain that poverty is a violation of human rights. There are 1.4 million people who die of hunger and thirst in the world, we must feel for them and feel their suffering.

The Region 8 Volunteer Award is introduced with the goal of encouraging all volunteers in the Region and of recognizing those volunteers who have made an outstanding contribution to a particular Region 8 Section. The Award is a Certificate.

The following are eligible as candidates for the Award:

• An IEEE member of any membership grade (Student, Graduate Student, Associate, Member, Senior Member,Fellow, Life Fellow).
• The candidate's volunteer work is, or has been, on behalf of a Section. The candidate must have been active for at least 2 years in the Section and is not currently the Section Chairman.
• The candidate receives no remuneration for his work for the Section except possibly expenses.
• The members of the Region 8 Awards and Recognition Subcommittee, the Past Region 8 Director or the Director-Elect and Region 8 Secretary are ineligible for the Award.
  

The Region 8 volunteer Award is now open for nominations; deadline for nominations is 31 december 2008. For more information, download:

• the description of the Region 8 Volunteer Award
• the nomination form of the Region 8 Volunteer Award

We would like to let you know that the IEEE 125th Anniversary website launched in September. Please visit http://www.ieee125.org and join the party!

On all IEEE Materials, until the end of 2009, please use the 125th Anniversary Mark, in place of the IEEE Master Brand. For more information please visit http://www.ieee.org/web/publications/rights/125th.html.

Also, please join the Anniversary celebration groups and networks on Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.