Edward C. Jordan Award

Established 1979

Edward Jordan

Edward C. Jordan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, on Dec. 31, 1910. He received the BS degree in 1934 and MS degree in 1936 from the University of Alberta, and the Ph.D. degree at The Ohio State University in 1940. Upon completing his doctoral degree, he served one year as instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He returned to Ohio State University in 1941, where he was an instructor, assistant professor, and consultant to the Antenna Laboratory from 1941 to 1945. In 1945, he followed his mentor, William L. Everitt, to the University of Illinois.

At the University of Illinois, Dr. Jordan served as associate professor from 1945 to 1947, professor from 1947 to 1979, director of the Radio Direction Finding Laboratory from 1946 to 1954, and director of the Antenna Laboratory from 1950 to 1954. In 1954, he was named Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering, in which capacity he served for 25 years until his retirement in 1979.

Ed Jordan authored or edited nine books and published numerous technical articles. His popular textbook, Electromagnetic Waves and Radiating Systems, was first published in 1950 by Prentice-Hall. A second edition, co-authored with K.G. Blamain, was published in 1968. At the time of his death, he was editing the eighth edition of Reference Data for Engineers: Radio Electronics, Computers, and Communications for Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc., publishers.

Jordan received many honors in his career. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He received the prestigious IEEE Education Medal and the Stanley H. Pierce Award at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He also received the Alumni Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Engineering 1986 from the UIUC College of Engineering, the George Sinclair Award from Ohio State University in 1988, and the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Alberta in 1988.

Edward C. Jordan passed away on Oct. 18, 1991.

DESCRIPTION:

These awards have been established to recognize the many contributions to our department by Professor E.C. Jordan who served as Head of this department for 25 years prior to his retirement in 1979. It is expected that several recipients will be selected each year.

REQUIREMENTS:

1. You must be a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, enrolled in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
2. Must be a Senior in ECE within one year of graduation at the time the award is made.
3. Must have demonstrated academic excellence, as determined by the department.
4. Must have demonstrated excellence of individual effort in some area of electrical or computer engineering research.

SELECTION PROCESS:

Faculty are asked to nominate outstanding students to their area committee chairmen. The area committees will select a recipient and forward the nomination to the Award Committee for the final selection. These are the research areas in the Department:

1. Bioengineering, Acoustics, and Magnetic Resonance Engineering
2. Circuits and Signal Processing
3. Computational Science and Engineering
4. Computer Engineering
5. Communication and Control
6. Electromagnetics, Optics, and Remote Sensing
7. Microelectronics and Quantum Electronics
8. Power and Energy Systems

AWARD:

The recipient(s) will be recognized during an annual Student Awards Banquet. All student recipients are featured on the second floor of the ECE Building's Student Honors Wall.

Past Recipients of the Award