W. Kenneth Dawson

Biography

W. Kenneth Dawson's dedication has greatly improved the interaction and effectiveness of the IEEE technical units. His IEEE leadership career began in 1987, when he served as president of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society (NPSS) and later as editor-in-chief of its transactions. Since 1994, he has been that Society's newsletter editor.

In the mid-1990s, Dr. Dawson helped lead the effort to rewrite and reorganize the IEEE bylaws, which realigned the Publications Activities Board's (PAB) organizational relationships with the Technical Activities Board. In 1995, as Information Systems Advisory Committee chair, he was instrumental to the building of IEEE's information technology system. He helped oversee the project and liaised with the Board of Directors.

As Division IV director from 1993-1994, Dr. Dawson led the approval of a director-elect position, a first in IEEE history. He spearheaded the creation of the young member-at-large position as vice president of PAB from 1995-1996. Dr. Dawson was a leading advocate on the IEEE Board of Directors for the 1999 revitalization of The Institute, the IEEE member newspaper. He served on The Institute Editorial Board and as PAB vice president, he actively promoted the relaunched publication.

At the University of Alberta, Canada, since 1959, Dr. Dawson cofounded the Nuclear Research Centre (now the Centre for Subatomic Research) and has been a professor of physics. He spent the last ten years of his university career in Vancouver at TRIUMF, Canada's national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics, where he served as division head. He is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Alberta.

An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Dawson has received numerous honors, including the IEEE NPSS Richard F. Shea Distinguished Service Award and the IEEE Standards Board Medallion.