This message is written while I am right back from the most productive, exciting, and extremely tiring week of the year. I bet that all of you are able to guess that I am talking about the so-called “symposium week”. The 2010 IEEE International Symposium on EMC was held in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on July 25–30. I am sure that many of you are surprised to hear about the Symposium in the Summer issue. Traditionally, the Fall edition of the Newsletter is our “symposium issue”, where you can find pretty much everything you wanted to know about the annual Symposium. Well, consider this as a little anticipation. Much more will be reported in the following Newsletter edition.
     I want to take this opportunity to thank Fred Heather, 2010 EMC Symposium General Chair, and his dedicated symposium committee for their efforts in making such a high-quality and extremely enjoyable event. Fort Lauderdale provided its “Caribbean style welcome” and an opportunity for us all to meet old friends and make new ones. The full week Symposium provided a wide offering which included workshops, tutorials, technical sessions, committee meetings, experiments, demonstrations, a technical exhibition, and the Global EMC University program. Most will agree that the technical and social programs were outstanding, but honestly being in Florida wasn’t so shabby either!
     As usual, there is so much activity during the symposium week that it is often a challenge to keep track of the technical presentations, committee meetings, and social as well as private events that are scheduled. When I reflect on the week as a whole, a few memorable events stand out. Let me take a moment to highlight several of these standout moments from the Symposium.
     The Welcome Reception held at the Convention Center was for sure a memorable beginning. It started in the Exhibit Hall with a cocktail hour with our exhibitors and continued in the Grand Floridian Ballroom with a delicious Latin American buffet dinner. On one side of the big ballroom, an exclusive Latin Night Club with live music and professional salsa dancers provided a very enjoyable entertainment.
     The second very memorable social event was the Wednesday Gala Banquet. This year in Fort Lauderdale the banquet was held on the fabulous ocean view terrace of the Harbor Beach Marriott, and included, in addition to a great meal, also live dancing music in a perfect Floridian evening beach party style.

PHOTO BY KEN WYATT

Milton Kant and Ralph Showers, Founders of the EMC Society, while sitting in the EMC Society History Booth at the 2010 EMC Symposium in Fort Lauderdale.

     The Awards Luncheon offered us another opportunity to recognize many of our Society’s leaders and technical contributors for 2009, as well as acknowledge several of our members who recently passed away. I had the pleasure of congratulating the winners and getting photos taken with them. The details of the awards and a listing of our worthy recipients will be included in the Fall Issue of the Newsletter.
     Finally, The Founder’s appreciation luncheon held during the week (arrangements courtesy of Dan Hoolihan) was very enjoyable. I had a chance to meet several Founders and past presidents. It was also a great opportunity to share past EMC stories and other recollections. I am glad to see that this tradition that started on the occasion of the EMC Society’s 50th Anniversary is continuing.
     Speaking of Founders, I want to point out the very pleasant interview taken by Dan Hoolihan of the Society Founders: Milton Kant, Melvin First and Ralph Showers. The interview was recorded by Espresso Engineering and is posted on the EMC Society website (www.emcs.org).

Chapter Outreach Activity
The annual Chapter Chair Training Session and dinner took place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in conjunction with the 2010 IEEE EMC Symposium. Contrary to the past years schedule, in order to reduce the overlap with technical sessions and committee meetings, this year the training session was held on Monday afternoon followed by a dinner. Both events were well attended and provided the opportunity for exchanging valuable information between the chapter representatives and the EMC Society’s Global and Regional officers (e.g. VP for Member Services, Regional Membership and Chapter Coordinator, Regional Conference Coordinator). I would like to take this opportunity to recommend all the chapters plan to attend next year’s events during the 2011 EMC Symposium.

PHOTOS BY PAT ANDRE
These photos are from the one day seminar at the Museum of Flight organized by the Seattle EMC Chapter.

I am shown with two past presidents of the EMC Society during my visit to Seattle: Don Heirman on the left and Len Carlson on the right.

    As part of the global outreach activity, I was particularly glad to visit the IEEE EMC Seattle chapter which is one our most active chapters. The occasion that brought me to Seattle was the one day seminar entitled “The Latest Developments in Global EMC Commercial and Military Test Standards”, sponsored by the local chapter. The meeting was held on June 28, 2010 at The Museum of Flight. I had the privilege of being one of the speakers together with Don Heirman and Dave Walen. The event was very successful with 72 attendees and 24 exhibiting companies. I appreciated meeting the EMC Society members in the Seattle area, as well as having the opportunity to know more about the history of flight. I also particularly enjoyed sightseeing in the lovely city of Seattle and neighborhoods. I am very grateful to Janet O’Neil for her warm hospitality and for showing me the major city attractions in a very short time.

Breaking News on EMC Society Publications
The IEEE Transactions on EMC has increased its Impact Factor (IF) from 1.083 to 1.294. I am extremely proud of this outcome, especially because it was achieved without applying any artifact based on aggressive and unethical tactics as many other IEEE Societies do. The Electromagnetic Compatibility Society underwent a periodicals review on Thursday, 24 June 2010 during the IEEE TAB meeting series in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The review process with the Periodicals Review and Advisory Committee (PRAC) went well and the overall feedback received was very positive. A proposal to turn the EMC Newsletter into a Magazine was also presented to the TAB Periodicals Committee on Thursday, 24 June 2010. IEEE TAB approved unanimously the proposal allowing a successful completion of the phase 1 of the process. Phase 2 will occur next November and if successfully completed, the transition to an EMC Magazine will be effective starting January 2012.

Board of Directors Meetings
The second EMC Society Board of Directors (BoD) meeting in 2010 was held in Fort Lauderdale on July 26 and 29, in conjunction with the annual EMC Symposium. A brief summary on the most important issues addressed during this meeting follows

• Four new Distinguished Lecturers were appointed for 2011–2012: Professor Chuck Bunting, Professor Wen-Yan Yin, Jerry Ramie, and Jerry Meyerhoff. These colleagues have a wide spectrum of expertise and experience, and all have industry experience as practicing engineers.
• The venues for hosting the 2014–2016 EMC Symposia were selected:
  • The 2014 IEEE International Symposium on EMC will be held in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
  • The 2015 IEEE International Symposium on EMC will be held in Dresden, Germany
  • The 2016 IEEE International Symposium on EMC will be held in Ottawa, Canada

    The next EMC Society Board of Directors (BoD) meeting is scheduled on November 13–14 in Pittsburgh and will host the Officer Elections. I remind everyone that all meetings of the EMC Society BoD are open. Any members who want to attend will be most welcome. The schedule of the BoD meeting is posted on the website at https://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/conferences.html, and in the calendar section of the Newsletter.

Call for Volunteers
The success of our Society is possible thanks to many fine volunteers who have contributed unselfishly of their time and talent. As the Society evolves, and new initiatives emerge, we are always in need of volunteers. Please, give serious consideration to becoming involved in our broad and challenging goals and objectives. The full list of committees can be found on our website at https://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/directors.html.
     I look forward to working with all of you who join the volunteers of the Society in helping achieve the set of our goals for the benefit of us all. For making a suggestion, comment, or just for dropping a friendly note, please do not hesitate to e-mail me at: fr.maradei@ieee.org.

EMC