WASHINGTON (18 May 2001) – IEEE Fellows Edmund O. Schweitzer III and William A. Wulf were honored at the American Association of Engineering Societies’ Awards Ceremony and Banquet at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on 7 May.

Schweitzer received the National Engineering Award, presented to recognize an engineer who has made outstanding contributions to our nation. IEEE Executive Director Dan Senese made the presentation on behalf of the engineering profession.

Wulf won the Kenneth Andrew Roe Award. AAES Chair-Elect Winfred Phillips presented the honor on behalf of the engineering community to recognize an engineer who has been effective in promoting unity among the engineering societies.

The IEEE Board of Directors confers the grade of Fellow upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of the IEEE fields of interest. The title is bestowed upon less than one percent of IEEE members.

In over 20 years of service in industry and academia, Schweitzer has accrued more than 30 patents, conducted important research and contributed to over 60 technical papers in the field of electric power engineering. Through his research and inventions, he was able to utilize the microprocessor in the electric power industry to monitor equipment and outages. His inventions allow power outages to be located in a timelier manner, thus protecting people against loss of fresh water supplies and loss of refrigeration for food and medicine.

Schweitzer, recognized as a pioneer in digital protection, founded Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) in Pullman, Wash., in 1982 to develop and manufacture digital protective relays and related products and services. SEL’s fundamental purpose is to make electric power safer, more reliable and more economical. Today, SEL is an employee-owned company which serves the electric power industry worldwide. Its equipment protects feeders, motors, transformers, transmission lines and other power apparatus. The company employs 550 people and has 24 domestic and 10 international locations.

Wulf has served as president of the National Academy of Engineering since 1997 and was re-elected to a six-year term in April. He is on leave from the University of Virginia, where he is a professor and holds the AT&T Chair in Engineering and Applied Sciences. His distinguished career includes time as assistant director of the National Science Foundation; chair and chief executive officer of Tartan Laboratories Inc. in Pittsburgh; and professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University.

As NAE president, Wulf is vice chair of the National Research Council, the principal operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. Under his leadership, a number of NAE initiatives have been launched in such areas as public understanding of engineering, technological literacy, engineering education, engineering workforce diversity, earth systems engineering and planning for extremely large urban areas (megacities) in developing countries or regions prone to natural disasters.

Later at the ceremony, IEEE-USA President Ned Sauthoff presented Jonathan Knight of New Scientist magazine with the Engineering Journalism Award for his November 2000 article "Art of Glass." The award was established by the United Engineering Foundation to recognize outstanding reporting of an event or issue that furthers the public understanding of engineering.