Wednesday ****Please note the
special day and time****
November 1
3:30 - 5:00 PM
Kelley 1001
James C. Rautio
IEEE/MTT Distinguished Microwave Lecturer
The Life of James Clerk Maxwell
James Clerk Maxwell stands shoulder to
shoulder with Newton
and Einstein, yet even those of us who have spent decades working with
Maxwell's equations are almost totally unfamiliar with his life and times. This
presentation, from the viewpoint of a microwave engineer, draws on many sources
in providing an understanding of James Maxwell himself. What was Maxwell like
as an infant? What was the tragedy at eight years old that profoundly
influenced his life? What unique means of transportation did young Maxwell use
to escape a cruel tutor? What memorable event occurred on his first day of
school? When did he publish his first papers, and what were they about? What
did Maxwell have to do with the rings of Saturn? Why did he lose his job as a
professor? Why did he have a hard time getting another job? What was his wife
like? What is Maxwell's legacy to us? The answers to these questions provide
insight into Maxwell the person and add an extra dimension to those four simple
equations we have studied ever since. There are no equations in this
presentation. The presentation is appropriate for anyone with a general
interest in the origins of modern physics. For electronic handouts for the
lecture, visit www.sonnetsoftware.com and click on the large Distinguished
Microwave Lecture Series" button at the bottom of the "News" section.
Biography:
James C. Rautio received a BSEE from
Cornell in 1978, a MS Systems Engineering from University
of Pennsylvania in 1982, and a Ph. D.
in electrical engineering from Syracuse
University in 1986. From
1978 to 1986, he worked for General Electric, first at the Valley Forge Space
Division, then at the Syracuse Electronics Laboratory. At this time he
developed microwave design and measurement software, and designed microwave
circuits on Alumina and on GaAs. From 1986 to 1988, he was a visiting professor
at Syracuse University and at Cornell. In 1988 he
went full time with Sonnet Software, a company he had founded in 1983. In 1995,
Sonnet was listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held US
companies, the first microwave software company ever to be so listed. Today,
Sonnet is the leading vendor of 3-D planar high frequency electromagnetic
analysis software. Dr. Rautio was elected a fellow of the IEEE in 2000 and
received the IEEE MTT Microwave Application Award in 2001 and is an adjunct
professor at Syracuse
University.
