IEEE Spectrum April, 2008 - 2

editorial
Editor

Susan Hassler, s.hassler@ieee.org

ExEcutivE Editor

Glenn Zorpette, g.zorpette@ieee.org

Managing Editor

Elizabeth A. Bretz, e.bretz@ieee.org

Harry Goldstein (online), h.goldstein@ieee.org;
Jean Kumagai, j.kumagai@ieee.org; Tekla S. Perry, t.perry@ieee.
org; Philip E. Ross, p.ross@ieee.org; William Sweet,
w.sweet@ieee.org
SEnior EditorS

Steven Cherry, s.cherry@ieee.org;
Samuel K. Moore (news), s.k.moore@ieee.org
SEnior aSSociatE EditorS

Erico Guizzo, e.guizzo@ieee.org;
Joshua J. Romero (online), j.j.romero@ieee.org;
Sandra Upson, s.upson@ieee.org
aSSociatE EditorS

aSSiStant Editor

Willie D. Jones, w.jones@ieee.org

SEnior copy Editor
copy Editor

Joseph N. Levine, j.levine@ieee.org

Michele Kogon, m.kogon@ieee.org

Editorial rESEarchEr

Alan Gardner, a.gardner@ieee.org

Ramona Gordon, r.gordon@ieee.org;
Nancy T. Hantman, n.hantman@ieee.org
adMiniStrativE aSSiStantS

ne afternoon in
November 2003, John
Voelcker was driving the
back roads near Woodstock, N.Y.,
when he got a call from a colleague
from his days at IEEE Spectrum in
the 1980s. It was Glenn Zorpette,
now Spectrum's executive editor,
who wanted to know whether
Voelcker would like to do a feature
story called "Top 10 Tech Cars"-
but Zorpette could hardly finish
the question. "Are you kidding?"
Voelcker shot back. "Of course I
would!" And he's done it ever since.
This January he went to the
North American International
Auto Show, in Detroit, one of the
global auto industry's most visible
events. In three days packed
with 37 scheduled media events,
Voelcker interviewed engineers
and executives; attended a blizzard
of receptions, dinners, and social
events; and eyeballed a lot of
vehicles (the photo above shows him
standing in front of Toyota's A-BAT
hybrid concept truck). He boiled it
all down as part of this year's story.

Voelcker-now Spectrum's automotive editor-has attended technical conferences in Florida, California,
and Washington, D.C., and auto
shows in London, Los Angeles, and
his hometown of New York City. He's
driven a fuel-cell vehicle on a U.S.
Marine Corps base in California and
watched college engineering teams
compete on General Motors' tracks
in Michigan and Arizona.
The most memorable venue, he
said, was the abandoned officer
housing at a former Air Force
Base in California's high desert.
There Voelcker watched robotic
vehicles navigate ghostly suburban
streets amid dozens of identical
Ford Taurus sedans piloted by
professional stunt drivers, in the
DARPA Urban Challenge.
What drives this self-admitted
"motorhead," the son of an electrical
engineering professor? "Between now
and the end of my life, what we call an
'automobile' will change profoundly,"
he says. "I want to help explain those
changes and get people thinking about
what they mean." o

citing articles in ieee sPectrum
IEEE Spectrum publishes two editions. In the international edition, the abbreviation INT appears at the
foot of each page. The North American edition is identified with the letters NA. Both have the same
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no. 4 (INT), April 2008, p. 7, or in IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 45, no. 4 (NA), April 2008, p. 11.

na * ieee sPectrum * aPril 2008

intErn

Sarah Adee, s.adee@ieee.org

Francesco Ferorelli, f.ferorelli@ieee.org

John Blau, Robert N. Charette,
Peter Fairley, Alexander Hellemans, David Kushner,
Robert W. Lucky, Paul McFedries, Kieron B. Murphy,
Carl Selinger, Seema Singh, John Voelcker
contributing EditorS

art & Production
SEnior art dirEctor

Mark Montgomery

aSSiStant art dirEctorS
photo Editor

Laura H. Azran, Brandon Palacio

Randi Silberman

dirEctor, pEriodicalS production SErvicES
Editorial & WEb production ManagEr
SEnior ElEctronic layout SpEcialiSt
WEb production coordinator
WEb production SpEcialiSt

Peter Tuohy

Roy Carubia
Bonnie Nani

Jacqueline L. Parker

Michael Spector

editorial advisory Board
Susan Hassler, Chair; Marc T. Apter, Francine D. Berman, Jan
Brown, Raffaello D'Andrea, Stephen L. Diamond, Hiromichi
Fujisawa, Kenneth Y. Goldberg, Susan Hackwood, Erik Heijne,
Charles H. House, David H. Jacobson, Christopher J. James,
Ronald G. Jensen, Mary Y. Lanzerotti, Ruby B. Lee, Tak Ming
Mak, David A. Mindell, C. Mohan, Fritz Morgan, Andrew M.
Odlyzko, Leslie D. Owens, Barry L. Shoop, Larry L. Smarr,
Harry L. "Nick" Tredennick III, Bill Weihl, Bas
¸ak Yüksel

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John Voelcker

A Gearhead's Motorhead

iEEE SpEctruM JournaliSM intErn

http://www.spectrum.ieee.Org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Spectrum April, 2008