Barry L. Shoop
2016
Barry L. Shoop, IEEE President, 2016, Dean of the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at Cooper Union, former Professor and Department Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York.
Biography
Barry Leroy Shoop, Ph.D., P.E., is the 2016 IEEE President and CEO and an IEEE Fellow. He received a B.S. from the Pennsylvania State University (1980), an M.S. from U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California (1986), and a Ph.D. from Stanford University (1992), all in electrical engineering. He also received an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island (2002). In addition, he is a licensed Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia (2011). In 2012, Shoop became an IEEE Fellow "for leadership in photonic signal and image processing for national security.” Previously, he became a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (2000), and the International Society for Optical Engineering (2003). In 2019, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and he is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Sigma Xi.
Shoop retired as a Brigadier General after a thirty-nine-year career in the U.S. Army, spending the last twenty-five years at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. At West Point he had key leadership roles, including Director of the Photonics Research Center (June 1995 – July 2000), Directory of the Electrical Engineering Program (June 2003 – June 2007), and Professor and Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (June 2014 – January 2019). After leaving West Point, Shoop became Dean of Engineering at the Albert Nerken School of Engineering at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Engineering in Manhattan, New York. He took this post on 1 January 2019. Earlier in his career, he was a satellite communication engineer responsible for the design and installation of a high-capacity, global digital communication network, and also the Chief Technology Officer for an organization addressing the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) challenge worldwide.
Shoop’s research interests have included optical information processing, neural networks, image processing, disruptive innovations and educational pedagogy. He has authored more than 150 archival publications as well as eight books and book chapters. He also holds one patent: B. L. Shoop, P. K. Das, and D. M. Litynski. Photonic Analog-to-Digital Converter Based on Temporal and Spatial Oversampling Techniques, U.S. Patent Number 6,529,150, March 4, 2003.
Shoop has made contributions across the breadth of IEEE that have changed the very fabric of its operations and governance, from local geographic units to the Board of Directors. His strategic vision has allowed him to lead the way to revolutionary changes within IEEE in the way IEEE thinks about, supports, and treats its members. One of Shoop’s most impactful accomplishments was his leadership in 2007-2008 as chair of the Regional Activities Board (RAB) Enterprise Engineering Project Ad Hoc Committee, which transformed RAB into the Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) group. One of the largest IEEE transformations in recent history, this change made the member a priority by focusing on involving members in all IEEE organizational units through programs and activities. As the 2010 vice president of MGA, he developed the Regional Geographic Strategy, which focuses on unique circumstances and commonality of the local geographic region to improve membership value and drive recruitment and retention. As the 2008-2009 IEEE secretary and chair of the IEEE Governance Committee, he led the Committee’s transformation from being focused solely on governing documents to being a resource for making IEEE governance more effective. In 2008, as the chair of the Business Management System Ad Hoc Committee, he made recommendations on how to improve IEEE’s IT system that resulted in changes to the entire IEEE IT enterprise, including structure, governance, and architecture.
Shoop is the recipient of many honors and awards from IEEE, including the IEEE Millennium Medal, October 1999; the IEEE-USA Leadership Award, September 1999; the Exceptional Service Award, IEEE Mid-Hudson Section, June 1999; the IEEE EAB Meritorious Service Citation Award, 2009; the IEEE Education Activities Board Award, 2009; and the IEEE Haraden Pratt Award, 2013. Other honors and awards include the Sergei Ivanovich Valilov All-Union Optical Society Medal, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1999; the D. S. Rozhdestvensky Memorial Medal, D. S. Rozhdestvensky Optical Society, Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2005; the OSA Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award, Optical Society of America, 2008; the Phi Kappa Phi Scholastic Achievement Award, Academic Year 2000-2001; the James D. Forrestal Award, Excellence in Strategy & Force Planning, U.S. Naval War College, 2001; the SPIE Educator Award, SPIE - the International Society for Optical Engineering, 2013; and the Pennsylvania State University Outstanding Alumni Award, 2016.
