Harold L. Flescher, longtime IEEE volunteer, to receive 2009 IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award

PISCATAWAY, N.J. (16 June 2009) — Harold L. Flescher, a dedicated volunteer with degrees in nuclear physics and a good understanding of business and financial issues who has served in IEEE Technical Societies, boards and committees for over 40 years, is being honored by IEEE with the 2009 IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award. IEEE is the world’s leading technical professional association.

The award, sponsored by the IEEE Technical Activities Board (TAB), recognizes Flescher for strong and effective leadership in the major reform of the financial structures of the Technical Activities Board and IEEE. The award will be presented on 25 June 2009 at the 2009 IEEE Honors Ceremony in Los Angeles, CA. For the first time, the IEEE Honors Ceremony will be broadcast live on the Web through IEEE.tv (www.ieee.tv ).

The Technical Societies, Councils and Technical Committees of IEEE Technical Activities work to foster technological innovation and progress by advancing the technical activities of IEEE for the benefit of the profession and humanity worldwide, and it represents the interests of the Societies and Technical Councils within IEEE. Flescher currently serves as an IEEE director and vice president of Technical Activities for IEEE, and has been involved as a member of the TAB Finance Committee since 1992, serving as TAB treasurer twice during this period.

Flescher’s involvement with TAB finances gave him the experience and knowledge to play a major role in understanding the existing financial structure of IEEE, identifying its flaws and developing a series of reorganizations that established a much more rational, transparent and sustainable system. In particular, he led the drive to implement a better budgeting process for TAB and IEEE.

He was the primary agent of change for creating an allocation process that defines adequate fiscal resources for all of the entities of IEEE and for changing a volunteer committee to better oversee these expenditures. He played a major role in getting these changes approved by the TAB, which was important since the changes affected almost every individual IEEE Society and were extremely unpopular with the voting members of TAB.

An IEEE Fellow, Flescher also served as president of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society from 1991-1992 and is currently its finance committee chair. His technical specialty is research and development and manufacturing of electronic systems hardened to the effects of space and nuclear weapons radiation, and he was awarded the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society Richard F. Shea Distinguished Member Award in 1997. Flescher received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nuclear physics from New York University. He worked for Raytheon Company from 1966 to 2001 and is currently a consultant in Palm Beach Gardens, FL, for companies with large, high-value, tightly scheduled projects involving complex engineering content.About IEEE

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, is commemorating its 125th anniversary in 2009 by Celebrating 125 Years of Engineering the Future around the globe. Through its more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, and has developed nearly 900 active industry standards. The organization annually sponsors more than 900 conferences worldwide. Additional information about IEEE can be found at http://www.ieee.org .