ECE alumnus Gordon Day becomes IEEE President-Elect

ECE ILLINOIS alumnus Gordon Day (BSEE '66, MSEE '67, and PhD '70) is the 2011 president-elect of the IEEE, the largest professional technical society in the world. He will begin serving as IEEE president on January 1, 2012. Day has previously served as president of the IEEE-USA national chapter, and president of the IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society.

Day comes into the IEEE top position after spending over 30 years at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), after leading the NIST Optoelectronics Division. Most of his research focused on developing new standards for optical fiber and fundamental physical measurements, before he retired last year.

In addition to his work at the NIST, Day has spent time in academia as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado and a visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of several professional societies including IEEE, the Optical Society of America, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Growing up on a farm in Winchester, Illinois, Day decided to pursue an engineering degree at the University of Illinois.

“I wound up going to the U of I thinking I was going to major in some kind of engineering,” he said. “I decided on electrical engineering after I got there when I discovered the U of I was one of the best electrical engineering schools in the country.”

Day said the things he learned while a student at Illinois helped him obtain the success he has had with his career. While a student he worked with the late Oscar Gaddy, professor emeritus who was a pioneer in laser technology and the frequency modulation of light.

“I think the experience I had at the University of Illinois was a great experience,” he said. “It provided me with the tools to succeed in a lot of areas.”

After retiring from the bureau of NIST, Day worked as a science adviser for Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV).

“I worked in the government for well over 30 years. I knew the executive branch quite well,” he said. “I had always been interested in what happens in congress. I found myself with the opportunity to spend a year there, supported by an IEEE fellowship.”

Day said he learned a lot about the public policy process and advocacy.

“For most companies, policy has become an important part of their portfolio,” he said. “It’s a much different environment from a purely technical job, but it’s one where engineers can play an important role.”

During his tenure as IEEE president, Day intends to tackle several policy issues, including encouraging the investment of more funding in science and technology, improving the science and math education of pre-college students, and high unemployment numbers.

“I’m concerned that the young people in the US are not as well educated in science and math as students in other parts of the world,” he said. “I think we need to look at the type of things students are learning pre-college.”

Day believes that any country wanting to maintain its well-being in the 21st century will need to encourage technological innovation.

“The U.S. has lost that edge that we once had. I think that any country that wants to maintain its prosperity in the 21st century is going to have to do it by encouraging technological innovation whatever that may be,” he said. “In order to do so they will need a very well-educated technical workforce, because those are the people who create ideas that really change the world.”

The number of unemployed engineers is a chief concern of Day’s, which he said has reached record levels in the past couple of years.

“The U.S. needs to find ways to stimulate creation of jobs for applied technologists, engineers, and scientists,” he said.

Day said at the end of his tenure, he hopes that he would have done his best to help the IEEE serve the next generation of engineers as well as it did his generation.

“I want it to be a stronger global organization, I want it to speak out assertively on behalf of the profession,” he said. “That will be the major thing I will try to do.”