Honorary degree citation - Martha Sloan

By: M.N.S. Swamy, June 1993

Mr. Rector, I have the honour to present to you Martha Sloan, eminent educator, author, researcher and currently President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the largest professional organization in the world.

Dr. Sloan has had a distinguished career in industry and education. She obtained her Master's and Doctoral degrees from Stanford University. During the sixties, she worked in communications research at the Palo Alto research laboratories of the Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. She then taught for two years at the Frankfurt International School in Germany and since 1969 has been a professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Michigan Technological University, where she concentrates her research on computer networks and fault tolerance. She is the sole author of three textbooks and has published more than fifty technical papers.

Dr. Sloan is a Phi Beta Kappa among other distinctions and holds memberships in several professional societies. She has been awarded the National Merit Scholarship, and IEEE Centennial Medal, the Frederick Emmons Terman Outstanding Young Electrical Engineering Educator Award as well as receiving the highest Computer Society recognition for distinguished service, the Richard E. Merwin Award.

Membre de l'Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers des États Unis depuis plus de trente ans, Mme Martha Sloan a occupé pratiquement tous les postes administratifs supérieurs de l'Institut en plus de siéger à une quarantaine de comités et de commissions de cet organisme réputé dont elle est devenue Fellow en 1991.

In addition to the IEEE, Dr. Sloan has been involved in many other professional societies related to engineering and computer science. She was president of the Computer Society in the mid-eighties and has served on more than a dozen of its committees and boards.

She has contributed greatly to the current renown of the IEEE and her exemplary service to this organization, along with her contributions to teaching, writing and research make her an outstanding candidate for this honorary degree.

Mr. Rector, it is my privilege to present to you, on behalf of the Senate and by the authority of the Board of Governors, Martha Sloan, so that you may confer on her the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.