The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020 - 23

Professional Profile

Summer, 1987 at IBM's Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA. Front Row (Left to Right): Victor
Lee, Ting Shen, Mike Ramirez, Grace Lim, Ed Nazzal. Back Row (Left to Right): Ed Engler, Jerry
Torrance; Robbie Beyers, Paul Grant, Jose Vazquez, Rick Savoy, Stuart Parkin. This team was the first
to find the atomic structure (shown in photo at far left) and optimal processing conditions for the
original material found superconducting above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen. Paul Grant was
Gamma Gamma Chapter President at Clarkson University, NY.

How has Eta Kappa Nu (IEEE-HKN)
impacted your life? Your career?

In your opinion, what has been the greatest
change in engineering since you were a student?

HKN at Clarkson taught me how to collaborate with
and lead talented individuals, essential for my success
on my future career.

I would say the evolvement of the Turing-Von Neumann
programmable digital computer. With three instructions
-subtract, store, branch on minus-and given enough
time, you can solve any engineering idea/concept/
design. Actually, the TvN machine matured when I
was in high school, it just wasn't employed extensively
until I was in college. I used an IBM 704 as a tool in
producing my 1958 Senior Thesis at Clarkson.

What inspired you to choose
the engineering field?
My father was one of the pioneer "ham" radio
operators who showed me as a kid how to design and
build "neat" stuff, like radio controlled model airplanes.
Isn't that what "engineering" is all about? (Dr. Grant's
company, W2AGZ Technologies, is named to honor
his father's ham radio call sign.)

What do you love about engineering?
Solving and/or inventing practical solutions using
physics and chemistry to improve human life
and society.

Whom do you admire and why?
The Four Thomases: 1) The Doubter (John 20).
Ask questions. 2) Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274).
Two paths to Truth: Faith and Reason. 3) Jefferson
(1743-1826). Uncertainty Between the Press and
History. 4) Edison (1841-1931). If you have an idea,
go try it out!

I wish I had known...
Richard Feynman. I came close on several occasions.
I'm a fan of his thesis, "There's Plenty of Room
on the Bottom." During my long career, I became
acquainted with 12 winners of the Nobel Prize in
Physics and/or Chemistry, one of whom I hired into
my department at IBM San Jose.

Best advice for new graduates...
Go for a career in industry, and, during your first
week on the job, go out on the plant manufacturing
floor, and seek what problems need solving.

From your perspective, what's the next
BIG advance in engineering?
Designing and manufacturing Life. We are already
on the frontier of "Designer DNA," and now possess
the microtools to engineer such. Such will present to
humanity the most significant societal challenge over
the upcoming decade.
HKN.ORG

http://www.w2agz.com/SG%20-%20SuperGrid%202.htm http://www.w2agz.com/ https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/

The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020