As the race for the 2006 IEEE President-Elect gets under way, it’s time the voters got to know more about the candidates. So The Institute spoke with first-time candidates Leah Jamieson and Gerald “Jerry” Peterson about a range of personal and professional topics.

Jamieson, an IEEE Fellow, is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at PurdueUniversity in West Lafayette, Ind., where she has been a faculty member since 1976. She is vice president of IEEE Publication Services and Products as well as chair of the IEEE Technical Activities Board’s New Technology Directions Committee. She also was the 2003 vice president of IEEE Technical Activities.

Peterson, an IEEE senior member, was a senior manager at Bell Laboratories’ Advanced Technologies Global Strategic Standardization department in Holmdel, N.J., until he retired in February 2003 after 37 years. He is now a senior manager emeritus and advises Bell Labs on IEEE matters. He was also 2003 president of the IEEE Standards Association. He is serving a third year on the IEEE Educational Activities Board and a second year as a member of the IEEE Ethics and Member Conduct Committee.

What inspired these two to become engineers? For Jamieson it was the desire to better connect with how her work in pursuit of an undergraduate degree in mathematics was going to be applied. That prompted her to go on to graduate school to study computer science and engineering. “Becoming an engineer was a migration—from loving math at the heart of things but wanting to move into something that had a more tangible application,” she says.

After Peterson graduated from high school, he enlistedin the U.S. Navy, where he began his education in electrical and electronics technology.

“I demonstrated sufficient mastery to become a math and electronics mentor to my shipmates,” he says. “I also observed that I would need to get a college education if I was to become a commissioned officer.”

After his Navy stint, Peterson enrolled at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He then earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., through Bell Labs’ Graduate Study Program.

When the two candidates were asked what other career they might have considered, Peterson says it probably would have been teaching. “I would have liked to teach engineering or math at the university level,” he says. “I enjoyed teaching so-called in-hours courses at Bell Labs and lecturing on engineering and management subjects at universities, conferences, and other forums. But, lacking a Ph.D., becoming a faculty member at a university was not an option.”

Although Jamieson admits it’s inconceivable to her to do anything but engineering, this amateur photographer says she might consider pursuing her hobby full time. “Being a photographer has some of the same flavor as being an engineer,” she says. “It has a very rigorous technical component, but there’s also a lot of creativity in what you photograph, how you frame it, and what you are saying with it that is very similar to engineering.”

HIGHS AND SOME LOWS Any job has good and bad aspects. For Peterson, who started out designing circuits and moved on to engineering software, the best part of his career is the variety that has come his way.

“Opportunities to move into engineering management and—through both the industry and the IEEE—to work in a global, multicultural environment with technical impact at the political, social, and economic levels go far beyond understanding math, electronics, and software,” he says. Peterson has lectured on standards development processes at numerous educational institutions, including StanfordUniversity in Palo Alto, Calif.; the University of Colorado in Boulder; and the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C.

For Peterson, the worst aspect was that pursuing the most interesting jobs often took him away from his wife, children, and other family members. “That’s time you can’t regain,” he says, adding, “It may be possible to balance both if one is willing to limit professional choices.”

For Jamieson, the worst aspect is “too many great opportunities and too little time to do them all.” She says that as a teacher of engineering design, the best part of her job is working with students; as a research engineer, the best part is the “exquisite combination of precision and creativity.”

“Engineering is built upon very mathematical, very physical absolutes in some ways. But how you put pieces together to create a system or process can be very creative,” she says

Asked to cite his most important career achievement, Peterson says it’s “earning the respect and honor of my industry and IEEE peers and having them seek me out and support me to lead projects.” Jamieson says her most significant achievement is the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) center, which she co-founded and now directs. EPICS is an undergraduate program at Purdue and 16 other universities that matches teams of engineering students with local community service programs to define, design, build, test, and support projects for the community.

“The center is tied to the idea that engineering should make a difference in people’s lives and in their community,” she says. “The center’s work changes the way students think about an engineer’s role in society.”

GOOD COUNSEL What career advice would they give to young engineers just starting out? Peterson says he would tell them to think beyond the technical aspects of the job. “A degree in engineering opens many doors to career paths that involve technology,” he notes. “Think in terms of the broadest possibilities. Keep your mind open to moving beyond, say, being a designer or programmer or immediate management.”

Jamieson says she would advise young engineers to find work that they love doing and to look for opportunities to enhance their skills.

“Always be on the lookout for a chance to work on a project that engages everything you can bring to the table,” she says.

Finally, what makes both candidates so devoted to the IEEE?

Jamieson gives two reasons. The first is that by bringing people together, the institute helps create both local and global communities so that people can share their technical knowledge, professional experiences, and insights. The second is her fellow volunteers. “We are working together toward common goals, and the IEEE provides a wealth of opportunities to make a difference in our profession,” she says.

Peterson appreciates how the IEEE facilitates being a global citizen, in the context of an organization with high social goals and sound ethics. He also cites “the vast opportunity to make a difference, to contribute at all levels, whether that is in a leadership post, as a subject matter expert, or by providing text or tutorials on a broad range of topics.”

“If you are willing to get in there and roll up your sleeves,” he says, “the IEEE is a place to express and demonstrate your skills and talents in many ways that are satisfying while being of value and of help to others.”