IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2016 - 4

President's Corn er

Jan Van der Spiegel

We Serve the Members

I am honored to be the president of
the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society
(SSCS). I am stepping into big shoes
but fortunate to follow in the footsteps of our excellent previous SSCS
presidents. Under the leadership of
the previous presidents, Bill Bidermann, Rakesh Kumar, and those that
came before them, the Society has
seen resurgence in its membership
growth, relevant benefits, and grassroots support.
I have had the privilege to be closely
involved with the Society for the past
17 years as the chair of the Chapters
Committee. I have seen first hand
how volunteers worldwide are generously devoting their time to bring the
benefits of our Society to our members. During that time, the number
of Chapters has grown from one to
98. A rich palette of vibrant and relevant activities are being organized
on a global service scale. It is this
type of grassroots activity that lies
at the core of the Society.
Being a volunteer can also be a
great help to your own career, like it
has helped mine. I would not be where
I am today if not for my involvement
with the IEEE, now going on 30 years.
I started by volunteering in small
ways. This gave me the opportunity
to meet extraordinary people who
served as role models and encouraged me to get more involved. I can
say that my participation in many
of the IEEE activities over the years
has been extremely beneficial to my
career and personal growth. This can
be the case for you as well.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MSSC.2015.2495792
Date of publication: 21 January 2016

W I N T E R 2 0 16

What is the role of the SSCS in the
21st century? We are in an age where
journal publications and other relevant information are easily accessible through the Internet. This begs
the question of why should I be a
member of the Society if I have free
access to all its journal and conference papers? It was largely for this
reason that former SSCS President
Bill Bidermann launched a "strategic planning" task force. Under the
direction of Chair Mike Beunder,
the task force spent a year discussing, reviewing, and formalizing a
plan that lends priority to what the
Society needs to focus on. The plan
will be available shortly on the redesigned SSCS website. I'd like to ask
you to send us your feedback and
suggestions. As with all plans, this
is a work in progress that will be
reviewed yearly.
My priorities as president will
include the following. I will continue
to advocate for the importance of
grassroots initiatives and will provide resources and recognition to
the volunteers. The Society can also
help with your professional development, independent of your age
group, through enhanced networking opportunities and mentoring
activities at our global conferences,
workshops, and Chapters. Since the
future of the Society lies with our
younger members, the recruitment
and involvement of students and
young professionals in all regions
of the world will be critical for the
Society. We have to make it clear
that EE is "cool" and has exciting
career prospects. Similarly, as the
Society is known for its outstanding

IEEE SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS MAGAZINE

conferences and publications, we
have to strive to achieve a similar
level of excellence in operations
and execution of its activities. This
also requires an increased level of
transparency in our organization as
a whole.
The Society is governed by an
Administrative Committee (AdCom)
that largely consists of elected members. Within the AdCom, there are
several committees that oversee various activities. I am glad to inform
you that we have an outstanding
team of volunteers who serve on
the AdCom. Starting this calendar
year, there are three new committee
chairs: Prof. Patrick Yu, chair of the
Membership Committee; Prof. John
Long, chair of the Publications Committee; and Prof. Ali Sheikholeslami,
chair of the Education Committee that includes the Distinguished
Lecturer (DL) program. The other
committees are the Meetings Committee under the leadership of Prof.
Kenneth O, the Awards Committee
with John Corcoran as chair, and
the Nominations Committee with
Dr. Rakesh Kumar as chair. I'd like to
thank the outgoing chairs, Prof. TziDar Chiueh and Prof. Glenn Gulak,
for their amazing commitment and
long-lasting contributions to the
Society as Membership and Publications chairs, respectively. My sincere
thanks to Domine Leenaerts, who
has stepped down as chair of the DL
program. Domine has done a fantastic job in promoting the program
including a number of successful DL

(Continued on p. 7)

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Solid-State Circuits Magazine - Winter 2016