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Helping IEEE Preserve History
According to Peter J. Wild, his more than 50-year affiliation with IEEE has proven invaluable to his career.
“I became a member of IEEE after completing my studies as an electronics engineer at the ETH in Zurich, Switzerland in 1964,” recalled Wild. He soon moved to the San Francisco Bay Area, US for work and to pursue further studies in computer science at the University of California, Berkeley and was inducted into IEEE Eta Kappa Nu upon his graduation in 1968. “At the time, IEEE already had a broad spectrum of activities and interesting publications that helped me in my work as a product development engineer,” said Wild, who returned to Switzerland and began working in the then-new field of information displays using liquid crystals and subsequently in telecommunications. “As I’d changed my professional focus several times, IEEE publications and conferences helped me to get acquainted with new fields of work,” he said.
As the author of a First-Hand History report on his work with liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for the IEEE History Center as well as a contributor to/editor for Wikipedia, “IEEE Spectrum was a helpful resource based on its broad range of topics, and when some of the IEEE History Center’s activities were transferred to the Engineering and Technology History Wiki (ETHW), I made sure that ETHW was properly represented in both the English and German-language Wikipedia,” he said.
“IEEE impresses me by its depth of accumulated technical knowledge, its international reach in our professions, and the endeavors supported by the IEEE Foundation,” concluded Wild, who resides in Switzerland. “Since the IEEE Foundation supports the IEEE History Center, I contributed to the History Center Fund and hope it can continue doing its valuable work in preserving and adding not only Milestones, but also titles such as Oral and First-Hand Histories.”