Donald Pederson
Donald O. Pederson | |
---|---|
Born |
September 30, 1925 Hallock, Minnesota, United States |
Died |
December 25, 2004 79) Concord, CA, United States | (aged
Residence | United States |
Nationality | United States |
Fields | Electronic Engineer |
Institutions | University of California Berkeley |
Alma mater | North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University), Stanford University |
Doctoral advisor | Joseph M. Pettit |
Doctoral students | A. Richard Newton |
Known for | Circuit design, CAD, SPICE |
Notable awards | IEEE Medal of Honor (1998) |
Donald Oscar Pederson (September 30, 1925 – December 25, 2004) was an American professor of electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and one of the designers of SPICE, the canonical integrated circuit simulator.
Biography
Born in Hallock, Minnesota, Dr. Pederson entered Iowa State College in the autumn of 1943, but then left for the military during World War II. He served as a private in the U.S. Army in Germany from 1943 to 1946. Upon his return from service, he continued his undergraduate education at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) and earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1948. He then attended Stanford University for graduate school, where he received his master's degree in electrical engineering in 1949 and his Ph.D. in 1951.
Pederson remained at Stanford as a researcher in the university's electronics research lab. From 1953 to 1955, he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and lectured at Newark College of Engineering. In 1955, Pederson joined the faculty of the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences of the University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. In the early 1970s he began work on SPICE, with his colleagues from the Electronic Research Lab. He retired in 1991, but continued to teach part-time.
Pederson died on December 25, 2004 in Concord, California, of complication from Parkinson's Disease.[1]
Awards
- 1969: IEEE Education Medal[2]
- 1984: IEEE Centennial Medal
- 1996: Computer & Communication Promotion Prize
- 1998: IEEE Medal of Honor for "creation of the SPICE Program, universally used for the computer aided design of circuits."
- 1995: Phil Kaufman Award
Pederson is member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences. He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
References
- Schevitz, Tanya (January 7, 2005), "Donald Oscar Pederson -- semiconductor chip pioneer", San Francisco Chronicle (San Francisco, CA), San Francisco Chronicle, pp. B7
- Hoffman, Jascha (January 10, 2005), "Donald Pederson, 79, Chip Scientist", New York Times (New York, NY), The New York Times, pp. B7
- Perry, Tekla S. (June 1998), "Donald O. Pederson [electronic engineering biography]", IEEE Spectrum, vol. 35 no. 6, pp. B7
- L.W. Nagel & D. O. Pederson (12 April 1973), SPICE (Simulation Program With Integrated Circuit Emphasis) (PDF) (Memorandum No. ERL-M382), Electronics Research Laboratory, College of Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, retrieved 27 April 2015
- ↑ "Donald Oscar Pederson -- semiconductor chip pioneer". San Francisco Chronicle. January 7, 2005.
- ↑ "IEEE James H. Mulligan, Jr. Education Medal Recipients" (PDF). IEEE. Retrieved November 24, 2010.
External links
- News of Professor Pederson's death in the UC Berkeley News
- "Father of SPICE language, Donald Pederson, dies at 79" - article in EE-Times
- IEEE History Center biography
- The Life of SPICE
- Donald Pederson — Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences