IEEE To Honor Besser For Achievement In RF/Microwave Continuing Education
The IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) has voted to recognize Dr. Les Besser for exceptional achievement in continuing education by awarding him its Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education. The award, established by the IEEE EAB to provide recognition for dedicated contributions to the design, delivery, and support of continuing education courses and programs, will carry the following citation:
"for leadership, excellence in teaching, and worldwide coverage of continuing education training for RF/microwave technology at all levels, and for personally teaching more than 10,000 engineers in 30 years"
The award will be presented to Dr. Besser during the November 2006 IEEE Board of Directors Meeting Series in New Orleans.
Dr. Besser, a Hungarian/Canadian/American, began organizing and presenting short courses on newly developed S-parameter design and measurement techniques while at his first engineering job in Hewlett-Packard's network analyzer group in the late 1960s. In 1975, he and Bob Wenzel developed the one-week "Microwave Circuit Design" continuing education short course at UCLA. The course became an overnight success and was also presented regularly at the University of Maryland, Santa Clara University, the University of Cambridge (UK), and the University Oxford (UK) over the next 15 years. During that period, Dr. Besser authored the first commercially successful microwave circuit optimization program, COMPACT, and founded Compact Software to market the product. (For that pioneering work, he is often referred to as the "father of microwave CAD.") Since he enjoyed teaching new technologies to working engineers, his next career step was the founding a new company in 1985, Besser Associates, dedicated to continuing education.
At the end of the Cold War, to provide continuing education to the newly emerging personal communication industry, Dr. Besser and his instructors "down-converted" the material of the microwave courses to lower frequencies. His newly developed five-day short course "RF Circuit Design I" has since been presented to thousands of engineers worldwide. He also developed and participated in the "RF Component Modeling" course, and developed the "RF Fundamentals" course series that was given regularly at RF and wireless symposia for over a decade. (The courses are now available in video format.) He also served as editorial director for Microwave System News (MSN) magazine for several years.
Besser Associates has become a leading continuing education institute for the RF/microwave industries. Companies like Motorola, AT&T/Lucent, Hewlett-Packard, and Nortel have used Besser Associates' courses as the core of their in-house training program. Course levels range from novice to highly specialized level, and are taught by highly experienced and respected engineers. During the past 20 years, nearly 50,000 professionals have been trained internationally by the company in over 30 countries. In Europe, Dr. Besser partnered with Continuing Education of Europe (CEI Europe) and presented numerous courses through them. He retired from Besser Associates in 2003 but occasionally still teaches courses for the company.
Dr. Besser has published over 70 technical articles and contributed to and co-authored several textbooks, including the recent two-volume best seller Practical RF Circuit Design for Modern Wireless Systems. A Life Fellow of the IEEE, Dr. Besser has also received the IEEE MTT-S Microwave Applications Award (1983), the IEEE RFTG Career Award (1987), and the IEEE Third Millennium Medal (2000). He is also listed in Marquis' Who's Who in the World and in Microwaves101's Microwave Hall of Fame.
For more information about the IEEE EAB Meritorious Achievement Award in Continuing Education, click here.
SOURCE: IEEE