Dr Steve Nightingale, Chief Consultant in Electronic Systems at ERA Technology, has recently been elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE), USA. This award honours Steve's achievements throughout his career, in particular his contributions to planar microwave and millimetre wave circuits.

The IEEE awards programme provides peer recognition to individuals whose contributions to electrical and electronics engineering worldwide have lead to significant developments in technology. Fellowships are awarded to engineers who have demonstrated outstanding proficiency and have achieved distinction in their profession. “Steve has an extraordinary record of accomplishment which has been recognised by his peers in the engineering community, explains Neil Williams, Manager of the Communications and Sensor Solutions business unit at ERA. During his time at ERA, Steve has successfully developed a business line designing, developing and manufacturing ultra wideband amplifiers and associated components for use in the optical communications industry.

Dr Steve Nightingale

The IEEE is a technical professional association that helps advance global prosperity by promoting the engineering process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing, and applying knowledge and electrical and information technologies and sciences for the benefit of humanity and the profession. Through its members, the IEEE is a leading authority in technical areas ranging from computer engineering, biomedical technology and telecommunications, to electric power, aerospace and consumer electronics, among others.

Notes to editors

Steve Nightingale qualified as an electronic engineer in 1974 and received his PhD from Kent University in 1980. He was with Philips Research Laboratories until 1982 where his work included: investigating the fundamental properties of GaAs (gallium arsenide), the design of automated test and measurement equipment and microwave hybrid circuit and system design to frequencies over 100GHz. From 1982-86, he worked for General Electric in USA, specialising in the design of GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) for military and commercial applications. In 1986 he joined THORN EMI Electronics, UK and led the team which developed Europes first foundary GaAs IC. He also managed an advanced technology programme to develop a range of circuit functions for the transmit receive module for the phased array gun locating radar, COBRA. In 1996 he joined ERA Technology to develop a business designing, developing and manufacturing ultra wideband amplifiers and associated components for use in the optical communications industry.

During his career, Steve has been a Director of the European Microwave Association (EuMA), Chairman of the IEE Electronics and Communications Division and a visiting Professor at Leeds University as well as holding other professional posts and advisory positions to the UK government and the MoD. Steve is a Registered European Engineer (Eur Ing), a Chartered Engineer (CEng), a Chartered Physicist (CPhys) and a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (FIEE) and the Institute of Physics (FInstP). He was recently elected to be a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (FIEEE) with the citation for contributions to planar microwave and milimeter wave circuits.