IEEE Bombay Section

Note: these are brief profiles only and are not full biographies for the speakers

Dr. Vijay Bhargava received the B.Sc., M.Sc., and Ph.D. degrees from Queen's University of Kingston, Canada in 1970, 1972 and 1974 respectively. Currently, he is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria.

He is a co-author of the book DIGITAL COMMUNICATIONS BY SATELLITE (New York: Wiley, 1981) and co-editor of the IEEE Press Book REED-SOLOMON CODES AND THEIR APPLICATIONS. He is an Editor-in-Chief of WIRELESS PERSONAL COMMUNICATION, a Kluwer Periodical. His research interests are in multi-media wireless communications.

Dr. Bhargava is very active in the IEEE and is currently the Vice President of IEEE Information Theory Society. He was co-chair for ISIT'95 and technical program chair for ICC'99.

Dr. Shan Rajagopal is currently a senior consultant with Integrated Project Systems (IPS) Associates Asia Ltd. He has about 20 years industrial, academic and consulting experience worldwide. He has published books on Supply Chain Management endorsed by Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) and

Organizational Buying Behaviour. He has written 60 over articles and conference papers.

Dr. Rajagopal was a pioneer together with collegues from Sttutgartt, Lisbon, and Budapest Universities in doing a 3 years management technology transfer to Hungary under the European Commission (EC) Tempus grant. He has travelled widely on many speaking engagements. He currently consults and conduct trainings for companies like Hewlett Packard, Compaq, Singapore Technologies, Gintic, Seagate, Ministry of Education (Singapore), and 3M among others.

Dr. Kenneth R. Laker received the B.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Manhattan College in 1968, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from New York University in 1970 and 73, respectively. His career includes experience as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and as an engineer and manager at AT&T Bell Labs and Bellcore. He was appointed to the University of Pennsylvania faculty in 1984, as Professor and Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department. He served as department chair from 1984-92. In 1990 he was appointed the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Electrical Engineering. He has contributed four books, eighty articles, and six patents; all in the area of microelectronic circuits. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1983 and received an IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984. In 1994 he was awarded the AT&T Clinton Davisson Trophy for his patent in switched capacitor circuits.

Dr. Laker is currently IEEE President. He has a distinguished history of service to IEEE including past VP of Educational Activities, multiple positions on the Technical Activities Board, the Education Activities Board, the Publications Board, the United States Activities Board and leadership positions in technical committees, conferences, sections and chapters. Dr. Laker became an IEEE Fellow in 1983.

A full biography of Dr. Laker can be found on the IEEE web site.

Dr. Michael S. Adler received the BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is currently Manager, Control Systems & Electronic Technologies Laboratory, General Electric Corporate Research and Development, in Schenectady, NY.

Dr. Adler has been employed at the General Electric Company's Research and Development Center since 1971. He worked initially on the device physics and design of power semiconductor devices and IC's, and has written and presented over 100 papers in this area. In his present position he directs the work of about 150 scientists, engineers, and technicians in the areas of high density electronic packaging, power controls, power circuits, control systems, electronic manufacturing quality and reliability engineering.

Dr. Adler is currently the Vice President - Technical Activities. He has served on many conference management committees including general chair and technical chair of the 1981-83 IEEE IEDM, the worlds largest electron device meeting. Dr. Adler’s previous IEEE activities include service as President of EDS, Chair of RAB/TAB Transnational Committee, Chair of TAB Technical Meetings and Services Committee and various other positions. Dr. Adler has been a Fellow of the IEEE since 1985 for his work in power electronic device CAD.

Mr. Wes Spencer received the BEE degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1973 and the MBA degree from the Florida Institute of Techology in 1975. Currently, he is the owner of Spentec Power Services, Inc in St. Petersburg Florida, which provides engineering and consulting services for utility systems.Prior to his current position, Mr. Spencer was affiliated with Florida Power Corporation for over 22 years. He has been involved with development of new medium voltage cable, switchgear, and distribution automation systems. In his present position, Mr. Spencer is directly involved with the application of large scale solid state devices to utility power systems. He has made numerous presentations on these topics and is now participating in his fifth TAB Colloquia as a speaker on power systems, and his third as the tour coordinator.

Mr. Spencer is Membership Secretary for the IEEE PES Insulated Conductors Committee, Chair of the TAB Colloquia Steering Committee, and a member of the TAB Strategic Planning and Review Committee.

He received the PES Distinguished Service Award in 1999 for his work with the ICC.