Oral-History:Bruno Weinschel
About Bruno Weinschel
Bruno Weinschel was born in 1919 in Stuttgart, Germany. He stayed there until he was about eighteen years old and went to graduate school at Columbia University. At Columbia, Weinschel worked with Professor Isador Rabi to build microwave sources. Hired at the AT&T, Weinschel worked on microwaves in the Bell Laboratories. In the mid forties, he became chief engineer of Industrial Instruments in Jersey City, NJ, which designed measuring equipment. During the time he was with Industrial Instruments, Weinschel worked at the National Bureau of Standards, and eventually joined the Bureau to become a section chief of Ordinance Development Division 13. He stayed there for about three years until 1952. Being ambitious, Weinschel started a private business while he still had a government job. However, he soon quit the job at the NBS and managed his private company as chief engineer and sole owner until about 1986. The main products of his company were precision passive microwave component, especially attenuators.
Bruno Weinschel was involved with IEEE professional activities from about 1977 while he was Vice President of the NBS. In 1978, he became Chairman of the Finance Committee of the IEEE Technical Activities Board. Soon, he started organizing the Washington office and restructuring personnel at the IEEE. In 1979, Weinschel put together a committee, which eventually became the US Competitiveness Committee. He also testified in Congress for various issues, including world trade, taxation, anti-trust, etc. He was also a member of the IEEE Educational Activities Boards and IEEE Publication Board.
In the interview, Bruno Weinschel talks about his half-a-year mechanical apprenticeship at Zeiss in Germany, his lecture in India, and possibilities and problems developing countries may bring about in the near future. He also describes his various activities, which have been made possible by his heavy backgrounds in physics and chemistry. Weinschel discusses his involvement with IEEE professional activities in detail. In addition, he emphasizes the importance of the quality of education and his efforts to push the agenda further within the IEEE. The interview concludes with Weinschel’s opinion on the IEEE publication practices.
