Leah Jamieson

Leah H. Jamieson, IEEE President, 2007, is the Ransburg Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dean of Engineering at Purdue University. She co-founded Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS), which links engineering students and local community service programs to serve societal needs.

Biography

Leah Jamieson served as IEEE president in 2007, and president of the IEEE Foundation from 2012 to 2016. She was the second woman to do so; Martha Sloan held the office in 1993. Jamieson previously served as the vice president of IEEE Publication Services and Products, vice president of Technical Activities and chair of the IEEE Technical Activities Board Periodicals Committee.

Jamieson was born on 27 August 1949 and holds a B.S. degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a M.A, M.S.E. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. A notably active educator, she is the Ransburg Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and associate dean of engineering for undergraduate education at Purdue University, where she has been a faculty member since 1976.

At Purdue, Jamieson co-founded and is a director of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) undergraduate engineering design program. Since EPICS was initiated at Purdue it has been adopted by seventeen universities. EPICS matches teams of engineering students with local community service programs to define, design, build, test, and support projects that improve the community. One example is Purdue’s partnership with the Wabash Center Children’s Clinic, in Lafayette, which works with the physically disabled. Purdue students helped deliver custom playgroup software, including interactive programs to teach the sign language alphabet.

In 2001, Jamieson received the Fellow Award from IEEE Women in Engineering "For contributions to the design and characterization of parallel algorithms for speech, image, and signal processing applications." For her work with EPICS, she was the co-recipient of the 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize given by the U.S. National Academy of Engineering to recognize innovation in engineering technology education. She has also received the National Science Foundation Director’s "Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars," the IEEE Education Society’s Harriet B. Rigas “Outstanding Woman Engineering Educator” Award, and the Anita Borg Institute’s “Women of Vision Award for Social Impact.”

IEEE activities include: Member, Design and Implementation of Signal Processing Systems Technical Committee; Member, Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal Committee; Past President, 1998-99, IEEE Signal Processing Society; Chair, TAB Periodicals Committee; Member PAB Strategic Planning Committee: Member, TAB Finance Committee; Member, PAB/TAB Electronic Products Committee; and TAB Representative, Publications Activity Board.