
Irene
C. Peden
Irene
C. Peden is Professor Emerita of Electrical Engineering
at the University of Washington, Seattle, where she
has also served as the Associate Dean of the College
of Engineering and as Associate Chair of the Department
of Electrical Engineering. Her research interests are
in geophysical subsurface remote sensing, radio science,
electromagnetic wave scattering and propagation, transmission
lines, antennas and remote sensing, and systems theory.
She is a graduate at the University of Colorado at Boulder,
and of Stanford University where she received her MS
and Ph.D. degrees, all in electrical engineering. She
joined the University of Washington faculty as Assistant
Professor after completing graduate studies in 1962.
From 1991 to 1993 she served for two and one half years
as Director of the Division of Electrical and Communication
Systems at the National Science Foundation, a term that
also included nine months as Director of the former
Engineering Infrastructure Division.
She
was the first women engineer/scientist to conduct fieldwork
in the interior of the Antarctic continent as Principal
Investigator (1970). She and her students provided significant
information about radio propagation and the polar ionosphere,
buried antennas, electromagnetic properties of the ice
sheet, and radio propagation over long in the polar
regions.
Dr.
Peden is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and has held a number of
positions in that organization including Vice President
for Educational Activities. She was a 1989 President
of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and chair
of the Steering Committee of the 1979 that represented
Commission B (Fields and Waves) on the US National Committee
of the International Union of Radio Science (URSI).
She is a member and former chair of the Army Science
Board, the Engineering Section of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the Engineering
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET).
She is a member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee
and the Joint Senior Advisory Group to the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications
and Intelligence (C31). Dr. Peden is a member of the
Engineering Advisory Council of the University of Colorado
at Boulder, the Board of Visitors of the College of
Engineering at the University of Colorado at Davis,
the Board of Visitors of the School of Engineering at
Duke University and the National Advisory Board of the
GATEWAY Engineering Education Coalition. She was the
National Science Foundation's 1993 Engineer of the Year,
and a 1993 inductee into the ASEE Engineering Educators
Hall of Fame (40 selected in 100 years).
Dr.
Peden was the recipient of the 1991 ABET Linton E. Grinter
Award, the IEEE's 1988 Haraden Pratt Award, 1984 Centennial
Medal, the 1989 Meritorious Achievement Award in Accreditation
Activities of the IEEE Educator Activities Board and
the 2000 Third Millennium Medal of the IEEE. Additional
honors and awards include the 1973 Achievement Award
of the Society of Women Engineers, 1974 Distinguished
Engineering Alumna Award for Education and 1994 Centennial
Medal from the University of Colorado, the ASEE Centennial
Medallion, the US Army's 1987 Outstanding Civilian Service
Medal, the Dean's Medallion of the Michigan State in
1994, and a Doctor of Science degree honoris causa from
Southern Methodist University in 1996. She is also a
Fellow of the AAAS, ASEE, ABET, and the Society of Women
Engineers.
Dr.
Peden is a member of the Electromagnetics Academy, Tau
Beta Pi, Mortar Board, and Sigma Xi. She is listed in
Who's Who in Engineering, Who's Who in America, Who's
Who of American Women, American Men and Women of Science
and Geographical Names of the Antarctic. She is a member
of the National Academy of Engineering.