The Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Symposium on Electrets has voted unanimously for James E. West, a research professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, to deliver the ISE15 Bernhard Gross Memorial Lecture. He was selected in recognition of his pioneering work in developing the electret microphone and for his continuing contributions to the electrets.
West started at Bell Laboratories as an intern and joined full time in 1957 after graduating from Temple University. As the co-inventor of the microphone, West has received numerous awards and honors, including election as a fellow of IEEE and induction into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1999. He was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2006 and the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering in 2010. He holds 47 U.S. patents and more than 200 foreign patents from his 40-year career with Bell Labs. He has been a research professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2002.
The lecture is named for Bernhard Gross. During a career that began in the early 1930s, Gross has contributed to many disciplines of physics and engineering. Some fields, such as radiation effects in solids and charge storage and transport in dielectrics, are integral parts of electret research, an area that Gross promoted and whose development he guided over the past seven decades.
The lecture will be delivered at the 15th International Symposium on Electrets being hosted by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Homewood in August. The International Symposium on Electrets is sponsored by the IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society and is held every three years in locations around the world. ISE15 marks the first return of the conference to the United States in 42 years. To learn more and to register for the symposium go to http://www.ise15.org.
