The Proceedings has a long and rich history
that can be traced back to its early beginnings in
1909, when it was known as the Proceedings of
the Wireless Institute. This Wireless
Institute began as a society for those interested
in wireless engineering. Six issues of the
Proceedings journal were published in 1909
under the direction of Greenleaf Pickard and
Alfred Goldsmith.
In 1911, the New York-based Wireless Institute
merged with the Boston-based Society of Wireless
Telegraph Engineers to become the Institute of
Radio Engineers (IRE). Wanting to continue the
publishing of Proceedings, Pickard and
Goldsmith published the first issue of
Proceedings of the IRE (Volume 1) in
January of 1913. Goldsmith, a Columbia University
professor who had edited the Proceedings of the
Wireless Institute, continued as editor of
the new journal. This is the milestone that we use
as the official birth date of this journal.
The Proceedings of the IRE
The Proceedings of the IRE was the
official publication of the IRE—it
published all of the papers, discussions, and
communications received from the membership. Many
extraordinary visionaries have published in this
journal including: Armstrong, deForest, Hopper,
Marconi, Mauchly, and Zworykin (just to name a few).
Through rigorous paper selection and a very
discriminating peer-review process, The
Proceedings of the IRE held fast to its
tradition of publishing only the best authors. It
was a unique honor (and it remains such) to be
published in this journal, and it was widely
acknowledged that published Proceedings
authors were professionally acknowledged by their
peers upon publication of their work in this
journal.
In May 1962 a 1000-page special issue celebrating
the 50th anniversary of IRE was
published.
The Proceedings of the IEEE
In 1963, the IRE merged with the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers. The resulting
organization, the IEEE, continued the Proceedings
tradition of publishing only the best and
brightest—and this tradition continues
today.
The Proceedings of the IEEE draws upon the
diverse and specialized resources of the IEEE
Membership (and occasionally beyond IEEE). As
technology evolves and as disparate fields
gradually converge into new specialties with
unprecedented applications, Proceedings,
with its coverage across all boundaries, continues
to flourish. Its rank as the most highly- cited
general-interest journal in electrical and
computer engineering and as one of the most
highly-cited IEEE publications continues to return
a healthy financial contribution to the IEEE.
