Award for Distinguished Public Service

Purpose

To honor individuals not currently in the practice of engineering for contributions to furthering the professional goals of IEEE in the United States. (These goals may be furthered by such means as promulgating laws or regulations benefiting the profession; influencing industrial environments to foster professionalism; creating curricula or publications designed to enhance professionalism; and other similar activities.)

Form of Recognition

Specially engraved award.

Frequency

One per year. If no suitable candidate is proposed in a given year, the award will not be presented for that year.

Eligibility

Members of government bodies, leaders of industry, members of academia, and others outside of the profession of engineering, in the United States.

No current member of the IEEE Board of Directors, the IEEE-USA Board of Directors, the IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition Committee, or IEEE staff may be candidates, or nominate or endorse candidates for this award.

Nominations

Proposals for nominations of candidates for this award shall be made via the online nomination portal.  Nominations will also be solicited via publications of suitable notices in SPECTRUM, The INSTITUTE, and in Section and Society newsletters. In addition, a press release shall be made available to appropriate trade and technical publications outside of IEEE.

Basis for Judging

Evidence of contributions shall include but not be limited to promulgation of laws benefiting the profession; promulgation of regulations benefiting the profession; creating an internal industrial environment to foster professionalism; and establishment of curricula and/or publications designed to enhance professionalism.

Selection

The IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition Committee shall evaluate all proposals and shall select the proposal which, in their judgment, is best and second best as alternate, and recommend the proposed candidate to the IEEE-USA Board of Directors for approval.

Presentation

Presentation of the award shall normally be made by the IEEE-USA President or designee preferably at a major IEEE-USA conference, such as the Professional Activities Conference, or a major IEEE Conference or appropriate public affair. However, the recipient shall be given a choice of location for the presentation.

Citation

The Citation should be proposed by the person originating the nomination. It will be reviewed and modified as appropriate by the IEEE-USA Awards and Recognition Committee.