IEEE Life Members’ Fellowship in Electrical History

Reimbursable research expenses include economy-class travel to visit archives, libraries, historical sites, or academic conferences, either to hear papers or to present one’s own work. Hotel stays, meals while traveling, copying costs, reprints of scholarly articles, and books directly pertaining to research are reimbursable. EEE History Center staff must approve any research trip exceeding US$1,000 in advance. Non-reimbursable expenses include licensing fees for images for the book version of the thesis, computers or computer peripherals, digital cameras, clothing, and office supplies, among others.

Normally, recipients are expected to take up the fellowship in July of the year they receive it. The Fellow typically receives  quarterly fellowship checks  in July, October, January, and April. We can arrange for Fellows in the Southern Hemisphere who adhere to the Southern Hemisphere Academic Year to receive their checks in December (for two quarters), March, and June.

Candidates with undergraduate degrees in engineering, the sciences, or the humanities are eligible for the fellowship. For pre-doctoral applicants, however, the award is conditional upon the candidate’s good standing in an appropriate Ph.D.-granting graduate program. Pre-doctoral fellows must pursue full-time graduate work, and evidence of satisfactory academic performance is required. These restrictions do not apply to post-doctoral applicants. The application deadline for post-doctoral applicants is four years after the Ph.D. award. The selection of the Fellow is based on the candidate’s potential to pursue research in and contribute to the history of IEEE’s designated fields.  Applicants pursuing technical topics should demonstrate that they possess the necessary skills—for example, knowledge of programming languages or mathematical discipline. Coursework or experience can demonstrate such knowledge.

The IEEE History Committee mandates that the Fellow submit a report in the spring, providing updates on their research project and detailing how the IEEE fellowship has contributed to the advancement of their scholarly work. The preferred form of this report is a 5-minute prerecorded video, but a 1- or 2-page written report is also acceptable.

The selection of the Fellow is based on the candidate’s potential to pursue research in and contribute to the history of IEEE’s designated fields. The deadline for receipt of applications each year is 1 February. Applicants will be notified of the results soon after the Spring History Committee meeting (which is usually early March) as possible, but in any case by 1 June.

The IEEE History Committee administers the IEEE Fellowship in the History of Electrical and Computing Technology, with sponsorship from the IEEE Life Members Committee. A subcommittee of the IEEE History Committee, comprising a mix of electrical engineers and historians, will judge the applications.

Winners may be announced on the IEEE History Center websites and newsletter and in the IEEE Foundation websites and newsletter.

A complete application consists of the following:

A complete application consists of the following:

Please keep file sizes under four megabytes for emailing. Microsoft Word files are preferred for the application, research proposal, and letters of recommendation. JPEGs are preferred for transcripts and may also be used for letters of recommendation (if preferred to prevent tampering). PDFs are accepted provided they do not exceed the size limit stated above. TIFFs are not acceptable.When submitting your files, please name them according to the following format:

If a document requires two files, then add a 1, 2, 3, etc., at the end of the file name as needed. Here is an example of a fellowship application package from Smith, with a two-page transcript that came in separate scans: