IEEE-USA's great challenge in 2009 will be to live up to its motto, "Building Careers & Shaping Public Policy."
"Never before in my memory have both of these tasks been as important as they are now," said Dr. Gordon W. Day, who became IEEE-USA president on New Year's Day. "Rarely have so many of our members been so concerned about the future of their careers, and rarely has a U.S. president been so committed to using technology to preserve our prosperity, keep us secure and protect our environment."
In a recent letter to President Barack Obama (http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/policy/2009/012909.pdf), Day strongly endorsed the president's strategy of making investments that will save or create jobs now and build a stronger America for the future.
"Our new energy and broadband recommendations match his strategy well," Day said.
IEEE-USA's latest energy policy recommendations (http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/energypolicy.pdf) call for improving energy efficiency, reducing our dependency on oil by electrifying transportation, "greening" our supply of electric power and building a stronger and smarter electrical energy infrastructure.
Another recent position statement urges the government to help provide universal, affordable access to broadband data communications (http://www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/broadband.pdf).
"The recommendations in these statements, which we will use to lobby and advise Congress, have the potential to create thousands of jobs here in America," Day said.
Day, who lives in Boulder, Colo., succeeds Dr. Russell Lefevre of Redondo Beach, Calif. Lefevre will serve as IEEE-USA's past president in 2009. Evelyn Hirt of Richland, Wash., is the organization's president-elect.
Day grew up on a farm in Scott County, Ill., and earned his bachelor's, master's and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois. He joined the IEEE as a student member in 1966.
Day spent 33 years in research and management at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder before retiring in 2003. During his last nine years at NIST, he served as division chief of NIST's Optoelectronics Division.
In 2005 Day was an IEEE-USA Congressional Fellow, serving as a science advisor to Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). He focused on science education, government R&D funding, telecommunications and homeland security.
Day later worked as director of government relations for the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association, and has been a consultant in optoelectronics technology and science policy.
A Fellow of the IEEE, the Optical Society of America and the United Kingdom's Institute of Physics, Day served as president of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society in 2000.
Day and his wife, Katherine, a retired science reference librarian, have two children, Sarah Day-O'Connell and Andrew Day, and three grandsons.
IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 215,000 engineers, scientists and allied professionals who are U.S. members of the IEEE. IEEE-USA is part of the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional society with 375,000 members in 160 countries. See http://www.ieeeusa.org.