A life of opportunities.

My first job was at the national electrical metrology laboratory of my country more than 30 years ago. That was really a privilege because I had just finished my first year in the university and I had the chance to learn from both worlds, the academic and the practical world of electrical measurements. At that time it was not easy to have access to sophisticated and precise instruments, so from time to time we had to develop our own instruments or devices. It was very interesting to try to solve real problems at work with the tools we were taught in the university. Most of the time, we had to learn by ourselves trying new techniques in the field and also question each result we obtained. I was fascinated by the mysteries of measurements.

After seven years I was privileged again when I attended for the first time one IEEE Conference. I met with two of my colleagues during the conference and we decided to create an IEEE Section when returning home. After some months of hard work we finally established the IEEE Uruguay Section. Very soon we also created an instrumentation and measurements local chapter and we were very successful with conferences and different kinds of activities for our members.

A few years ago I was very surprised when I received an invitation to be part of the slate of candidates for the Instrumentation and Measurements Society Administrative Committee (AdCom). Once again in my life I felt privileged and I accepted. Fortunately I was elected by the members of the society and I started working in the AdCom. I was very enthusiastic and I decided to be part of the membership development committee. It gave me the opportunity to know many people from very different regions of the world. At that time we started developing new offers to our members like educational resources, awards and incentives. We tried to help our volunteers in many countries to create local chapters and organize as many activities as possible. It was thanks to the wonderful group of people, members of the AdCom, that we could achieve our goals.

But that was not the end. Imagine how surprised I was when in our last AdCom meeting I learned that my friends were proposing me as president of the society. I never imagined that I could ever become president of this society. I was very grateful to my friends who trusted me but I was also scared because the responsibilities are demanding. I cannot disappoint them or you, the members of the society. I soon remembered my first days at work trying to measure millivolts in a high voltage laboratory and trying to connect to instruments through IEEE 488. That was also demanding but I managed thanks to the group of people I worked with.
I would like to tell you that the world of IEEE and particularly our society is fascinating. This is not just receiving a magazine. This is a team job. It has more to do with participation and networking with colleagues all over the world. Now we have a great opportunity to develop our careers. Our officers in the AdCom are working on a list of plans for helping you increase your knowledge. We would like to improve our relation to industry, we would like to increase what we can offer to students and we are developing more educational resources than ever. Two years ago we created the Education Committee in our AdCom and an important part of our budget is dedicated to it. This shows you the importance we are giving to education in our plans. Measurements are present in every engineering practice and I think we can help other professionals in their daily activities. I also believe that measurements have a great impact in society. We have to work on it to make this a better world for all of us. This is a real challenge to us so I kindly invite you to talk to us, participate in your local organizations, suggest new ideas for activities and also tell us what you dislike about our committee. I am sure that only with your help we can strengthen our society.

Now I would like to thank my colleagues who thirty years ago introduced me to the world of instrumentation and measurements and also my friends at the AdCom who are trusting me at this time.

Jorge Fernandez. Daher
President, IEEE I&M Society

The I&M Society awards four Society-level awards annually:

• the Outstanding Young Engineer Award - The I&M Outstanding Young Engineer Award recognizes an outstanding young I&M member who has distinguished him/herself through achievements, which are technical, of exemplary service to the I&M Society, or a combination of both early in their career. The nominee must not have reached their 39th birthday and must be an I&M member at the time of nomination.

• the Technical Award - The I&M Society Technical Award is given to an individual or group of individuals for outstanding contribution or leadership in advancing instrumentation design or measurement technique.

• the Distinguished Service Award - The I&M Society Distinguished Service Award is presented each year to an individual who has given outstanding service to the Society and to the profession.

• the Career Excellence Award - The I&M Career Excellence Award is awarded to recognize a lifetime career of meritorious achievement and outstanding technical contribution by an individual in the field of instrumentation and measurement.

Nominations for the 2012 awards cycle are now being accepted. Click here to nominate.

The 2011 Joseph F. Keithley Award Reza Zoughi

"For contributions to microwave and millimeter wave measurement techniques for nondestructive testing and evaluation."

The 2010 I&M Society Awards were presented at the Awards Luncheon at I2MTC 2011 in Hangzhou, China. Congratulations to the following recipients:

Outstanding Young Engineer Award:
Yan Zhai
for advancement in stochastic signal processing for real-time data acquisition and surveillance measurements

Technical Award:
Abdulmotaleb El Saddik
for outstanding contributions to multimedia computing

Distinguished Service Award:
Robert C. Rassa
for many years of invaluable dedication to the Instrumentation and Measurement Society

Career Excellence Award:
Asad M. Madni
For an extraordinary career of enlightened leadership in and pioneering contributions to the development and commercialization of intelligent sensors, systems and instrumentation

Congratulations to our latest Senior Members: Jonathan Allen, Clinton Cathey, Yukio Hiranaka, Jagadeesh Kumar, Linus Michaeli, Philip Sallis, Daniel Watzenig, Joao Barros, Wenping Cao, Sandra Costanzo, Fong-Zhi Chen, and Ramesh Rayudu, Francesco Basile, Souheil Benzerrouk, Takafumi Hayashi, and Kristi Hummel.

I&M Fellows - Class of 2012

Rafik Goubran
Carleton University
for contributions to voice quality measurement and its applications to audio improvement

Thomas Linnenbrink
Hittite Microwave Corp.
for leadership in standards for instrumentation and measurement systems

Kenneth Tobin
Oak Ridge National Laboratory / UT-Battelle, LLC
for contributions to computer vision technology for instrumentation and measurement

Samir Trabelsi
U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
for contributions to microwave measurements on particulate materials for agriculture

Wuqiang Yang
The University of Manchester
for contributions to electrical capacitance tomography

Upcoming Conferences

IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement University (IMU)

2012 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium (SAS) will be held 7-9 February 2012 at the University of Brescia, Italy.

Abstract Submission Deadline
1 October 2011

Acceptance/Rejection Notification
10 November 2011

Final Manuscript Submission and Registration
23 December 2011

For more information, visit the website at:

http://sensorapps.org/

2012 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC) will be held 13-16 May 2012 in Graz, Austria.

Abstract Submission Deadline
6 November 2011

Acceptance/Rejection Notification
30 December 2011

Final Manuscript Submission and Registration
4 March 2012

For more information, visit the website at:

http://imtc.ieee-ims.org/

IEEE AUTOTESTCON will be held 10-13 September 2012 in Anaheim, CA,, USA.

Abstracts are to be submitted to the Abstract Management website no later than 15 February 2012, at http://www.edas.info/11707

For more information, visit the website at:

http://autotestcon.com/