IEEE Life Members’ Fellowship in Electrical History
The IEEE Life Members’ Fellowship in Electrical History provides support for either one year of full-time graduate work in the history of electrical science and technology at a college or university of recognized standing or up to one year of post-doctoral research.
The IEEE Life Member History Fellowship supports one year of full-time graduate work or one year of post-doctoral research for a scholar in this field who has received his or her Ph.D. within the past four years in the history of IEEE’s designated fields. These are defined per IEEE Bylaw I-104.11 as: engineering, computer sciences and information technology, Physical Sciences, Biological and Medical Sciences, Mathematics, Technical communications, education, management, and law and policy. A college or university of recognized standing should conduct this work. The stipend is US$25,000 with a research budget of up to US$3,000. The IEEE Life Members’ Committee funds the IEEE Fellowship in the History of Electrical and Computing Technology, which supports historical research in any area under the purview of an IEEE Society. IEEE has more than 40 separate Societies and technical Councils covering a broad range of electrical and computing engineering. For a complete list, see the IEEE Society Descriptions page.
Please note that this Fellowship is intended for the history of technology; it is not intended for scholars studying current electrical engineering or computing. For those, there is an IEEE Life Members Graduate Study Fellowship in Electrical Engineering, which might be more appropriate.
About the Fellowship
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.
Completing the Application
A complete application consists of the following:
The PDF of the application form can be downloaded, filled out in English, and emailed back to the address on the form.
Include a detailed (approximately ten-to-15-page double-spaced) description of your proposed research in English, discussing subject, scope, methodology, and the contribution that this work will make to the field of electrical history.
Include a transcript of your graduate university record. If you have attended more than one college or university, be sure to provide transcripts for all graduate course work. Please submit transcripts electronically to ieee-history [at] ieee.org. You may either email the transcript directly to us or ask your university to do so.
Letters of recommendation from three (3) references, in English must be received in support of your application. Your references should address the letters to the Chair of the Fellowship Committee and email them to ieee-history [at] ieee.org. Be sure to allow your references sufficient time to meet the deadline. Letters of recommendation for the IEEE Life Members’ Fellowship should give the selection committee an evaluation of the candidate’s ability to conduct graduate- or post-doctoral-level historical research and of his or her originality, creativity, character, diligence, social responsibility, and ability to lead or communicate. Professors, please indicate approximately how many students you have taught or advised in the field and at what percentage you would rank the applicant. The letter will be considered confidential. Letters of recommendation may be emailed as an attachment to ieee-history [at] ieee.org.
In order to be considered, this letter must be received by 1 February.
Format for Submission
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:
[your surname] Fellowship Application
[your surname] Fellowship Proposal
[your surname] Transcript [short name of university]
[your surname] Recommendation letter [surname of reference]
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:
Smith Fellowship Application
Smith Fellowship Proposal
Smith Transcript Johns Hopkins
Smith Transcript Johns Hopkins 2
Smith Recommendation letter Davis
Smith Recommendation letter Terhune
Smith Recommendation letter Nash
Previous recipients
2025 Michele Spektor – Making Biometric Citizens: Technology and Power from the British Empire to the Digital Age
2024 Alex Reiss-Sorokin – From Research to Search: Technologies of Legal Research, 1964-1994
2023 Aaron Gluck-Thaler – Surveillance and Security
2022 David Dunning – To Program Language: A History of What We Talk with in the Age of Computing
2021 Susannah Glickman – Quantum Computing and Information
2020 Daniela Russ – Computers, Optimal Planning, and the Science of Energetics in the Soviet Union (1951-1982)
2019 Damilola Adebayo – Electricity, Economy and Society in Southern Nigeria, 1898-1972
2018 Theodora Dryer – Designing Certainty: The Rise of Algorithmic Computing in an Age of Anxiety ,1920-1960
2017 Devin Kennedy – Computing’s Economy: Science, Technology, and the Making of Modern Finance, 1945-1975
2016 Thomas Turnbull – Computerisation and the Science of Energy Conservation in the United States, 1971-1980
2015 Gerardo Con Díaz – Intangible Inventions: Patents and the History of Software, 1945-1985
2014 Casey Cater – Regenerating Dixie: Electric Energy, Environment, and the Making of the Modern South
2013 Jacob Gaboury – Computer Graphics at the University of Utah
2012 Joy Rankin – Personal Computing before Personal Computers: How 1960s and 1970s Time-Sharing Users Created Individualized, Interactive Computing
2011 Marc Landry – Europe’s Battery: Alpine Water and Power, 1870-1960
2010 Julie Cohn – Expansion for Conservation: The Growth of North America’s Power Grid through the Twentieth Century
2009 Corinna Schlombs – Trans-Atlantic Transfer of Computing Technology
2008 Andrew Russell – Communication Standards from National Monopoly to Global Competition
2007 Mara Mills – Deafness and Modern Communication Technologies
2006 Hyungsub Choi – Making Transistors in the United States and Japan 1948-1960
2005 Christopher McGahey – Forty Years of Technological Innovation in the US Quartz Crystal Industry, 1918-1958
2004 Chen-Pang Yeang – Characterizing Wireless Channels: The History of Radio-Wave Propagation and Interferences, 1900-1935
2003 Leslie Berlin – Entrepreneurship and the Rise of Silicon Valley: The Career of Robert Noyce, 1956-1990
2002 Timothy Wolters – Evolution of Naval Combat Information Centers
2001 Cyrus Mody – Scanning Probe Microscopy
2000 Thomas Haigh – Managing Information Processing in American Corporations
1999 Atsushi Akera – Scientific & Engineering Computing since WWII
1998 Gary Frost – Failure of Early Frequency Modulation Radio 1900-1950
1997 Aristotle Tympas – Transition from Analog to Digital Computing
1996 Andrew Robertson – Transfer of automatic control technology between U.S. & Japan
1996 Christophe Lecuyer – Military electronics manufacturing
1995 David Morton – History of Magnetic Recording
1994 Ross Bassett – History of Metal Oxide Semiconductors
1993 Mary Ann Hellrigel – Adoption of Light and Power in Small Town America
1992 Sungook Hong – John Ambrose Fleming
1991 Gabrielle Hecht – Development of Nuclear Power
1990 Mark Henry Clark – History of Magnetic Recording
1989 Graeme Gooday – Laboratory-Based Culture in Electrical Engineering
1988 Michael Gunderloy – Computing Activities of National Bureau of Standards
1987 Nelson Kellogg – History of Television
1986 Jonathan Coopersmith – Electrification of Russia, 1880-1925
1985 Paul Israel – Technological Innovation in the Telegraph Industry
1984 Andrew Butrica – Telegraphy and Electrical Engineering in France
1983 Lawrence Owens – Early Career of Vannevar Bush
1982 No Award
1981 Robert Rosenberg – Electrical Engineering Education in America
1980 W Bernard Carlson – Career of Elihu Thomson
1979 Ronald Kline – Steinmetz and the Development of Electrical Engineering
1978 Terry Rockefeller – Technology and Democracy in the Interwar Years: The Political and Social Impact of Electrical Light and Power in New York State
Submission
Send your application material via email at [email protected], to the attention of:
Chair, IEEE Fellowship in the History of Electrical and Computing Technology
If you have any questions regarding application procedures, contact the IEEE History Center,
+1 732 562 5450, or ieee-history [at] ieee.org.