Engineering Hall of Fame:

Frederick Terman and the 100th Birthday of Eta Kappa Nu

by Frederik Nebeker

Eta Kappa Nu, the honorary society formed at the University of Illinois in 1904, encourages excellence in electrical and computer engineering, and conducts programs that reward students and alumni for leadership and good citizenship. Student chapters undertake numerous projects, including tutoring fellow students, giving technical demonstrations and hosting exhibits during National Engineers Week.

Recognizing outstanding accomplishments of electrical and computer engineering students, faculty, and career engineers and engineering managers, whether or not they are members of the society, in recent years, the organization has developed mutually beneficial programs and services in cooperation with the IEEE.

Eta Kappa Nu will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2004. During its first century, some 120 electrical and computer engineering leaders were elected to its highest grade, Eminent Member. Among the Eminent Members are corporate executives and company founders William Hewlett and Simon Ramo; government leaders Vannevar Bush and Jerome B. Wiesner; Nobel Prize winners Jack Kilby and Charles Townes; IEEE medal winners and past presidents Ivan Getting and Donald Fink; educators Ernst Weber and Mischa Schwartz; and inventors Lee de Forest and John Bardeen. One Eminent Member who illustrates engineering excellence and service to the professional community particularly well is Frederick Terman.

Born 7 June 1900 in English, Indiana, Terman studied under Vannevar Bush at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before beginning his lifelong teaching career at Stanford University in 1925. His radio circuits research and his publications helped establish the academic field of electronics. In 1932, Terman published Radio Engineering, an advanced text that taught how to calculate radio circuit performance "with the same certainty and accuracy as the performance of other types of electrical equipment, such as transformers, motors and transmission lines is analyzed." Universities in many countries adopted the textbook, which was published in several languages and went through four editions, the last in 1955. Two other highly influential books by Terman were Measurements in Radio Engineering (1935) and Radio Engineers' Handbook (1943).

Always seeking close collaboration between university and industry, Terman wanted to ensure that the design information in his textbooks accorded with current practice. At the same time, he fostered ties between the Stanford electrical engineering program and local industry. For these latter efforts, Terman is often called  "the father of Silicon Valley."

In addition to being an Eta Kappa Nu Eminent Member, Terman received the National Medal of Science and the Institute of Radio Engineers' Medal of Honor. He died on 19 December 1982 in Palo Alto, Calif.

 

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Frederik Nebeker is Senior Research Historian at the IEEE History Center at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Visit the IEEE History Center's Web page at: www.ieee.org/organizations/history_center/.