Irene C. Peden

Irene Carswell Peden
Irene Peden celebrating her 90th birthday, 2015
Born	(1925-09-25) September 25, 1925 (age 99) Topeka, Kansas
Academic background
Alma mater	Stanford University(M.S., PhD.) University of Colorado(B.S.) Kansas City Junior College(A.S.)
Thesis	Experimental investigation of transmission-line representations of microwave periodic circuits (1962)
Academic work
Main interests	applied electromagnetics radio science antennas subsurface remote sensing[1]^[dead link‍]

Irene Carswell Peden (born September 25, 1925) is an American engineer who has contributed much to the field of electrical engineering. She is known for being the first American woman scientist to live and work in the interior of the Antarctic, where she developed new methods to analyze the deep glacial ice by studying the effect it has on radio waves.^[2][3]

Early life and education

Born on September 25, 1925, in Topeka, Kansas,^[4] Irene was the oldest of three girls, her mother was also the oldest child of four, in a Swedish immigrant family.^[5] Her mother was a school teacher in math and music education. Her father was in the automobile business.^[6] She graduated from Central High School in Kansas City, Missouri.^[7] After graduating from Kansas City Junior College, Irene went on to graduate from the University of Colorado with a degree in electrical engineering in 1947.^{[1][dead link‍]} She later went to graduate school at Stanford University, where she conducted research for her doctoral dissertation in the Stanford Microwave Lab. ^[8] In 1962, Irene became the first woman to earn a PhD in engineering from Stanford. ^[9] Both Peden's M.S and Ph.D from Stanford were in electrical engineering.^[10]

Professional career

After graduating from the University of Colorado from 1947 to 1949, Irene worked as a junior engineer for Delaware Power and Light Company, and then for Aircraft Radio systems Laboratory of the Stanford Research Institute from 1949 to 1950. From 1953 to 1954, she worked as a research engineer for Midwest Research Institute.^[11]

Once she earned her doctorate degree, Irene joined the electrical engineering faculty at the University of Washington, first as an assistant to associate professor from 1961 to 1971, and then promoted to full professor in 1971.^{[1][dead link‍]} Later, she was an associate dean of engineering from 1973 to 1977, and then the associate chair of the electrical engineering department from 1983 to 1986.^[11] Peden became the Professor Emerita of electrical engineering at the University of Washington in 2002.^[12][13]

Peden has also had her hand in several scientific publications, either writing alone or with others. Some of her works include: "Radio Science", "IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation", "Transactions on Geoscience Electronics".^[14]

Work in the Antarctic

In 1970, Irene became the first American woman engineer or scientist to conduct research in the Antarctic interior.^[3] While there, she conducted research with a grant from the Polar Upper Atmosphere Program at the National Science Foundation.^[15] Her work during her time in the Antarctic consisted of characterizing glacial ice. They often worked 12-hour days in temperatures as low as -50 °C.^[3] She and her students were the first to measure many important electrical properties of the glacial ice. Paths in the ice were measured using very low frequency propagation. Structures and other items were found under the ice using very high frequency radio waves. Peden designed the mathematical models and methodology needed to find this characteristics.^[16] In 1979 she spent an entire winter at the South Pole, becoming the first woman to do so.^[17] Because of the significance of her work, the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) named a line of cliffs near Rhodes Icefall after her scientific contributions, now called Peden Cliffs (74°57′S 136°28′W).^[18]

Memberships

Irene Peden is a member of several scientific organizations. Some of these are the Explorer's Club, the ASEE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Geophysical Union. Other organizations she is a member of include International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the Society of Women Engineers, National Academy of Engineering, and the Association of Women in Science. She is also an alum of several academic honor societies. These include Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, and Mortar Board.^[10][19][20]

Awards and honors

This might sound very minor but the author^[21] of one of only a tiny number of 'career novels' mentioning that engineering could also be for girls, noted her special thanks to Peden in 1966, presumably for helping with the background reality for young women entering the male-majority profession. Peden received the Society of Women Engineers' Achievement Award in 1973 as well as the U.S. Army's Outstanding Civilian Service Medal in 1987 for her research and work in the Antarctic.^[16] Irene Peden was elected member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1993 for her leadership in engineering education in antennas and propagation and contributions to radioscience in the polar region.^[22][23] Also that same year, the National Science Foundation named her as the Engineer of the Year.^{[1][dead link‍]} Among her other numerous awards she was inducted into the ASEE Engineering Educators Hall of Fame.^{[1][dead link‍]} She is also a Fellow of IEEE, which honored her with their Distinguished Achievement Award, the Centennial Medal in 1984, and Third Millennium Medal for 2000.^{[23][1][dead link‍][10]} Irene Peden received the Diamond Award from the University of Washington in 2018 which is given to alumni and others who have made great strides in the field of engineering.^[24][25]

References

1. SWE 2008.
2. Wayne 2011, pp. 755.
3. Magazine, Smithsonian. "Trailblazing Engineer Irene Peden Broke Antarctic Barriers for Women". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
4. IEEE Membership Directory: Volumes 1–2. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. 2001. p. 336. Retrieved 11 November 2022.
5. Peden 2002a, pp. 1.
6. McMurray, Emily J. (1995). Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, Inc. pp. 1558. ISBN 0-8103-9184-8.
7. Peden 2002a, pp. 6.
8. Peden 2002b, pp. 13.
9. Peden 2002a, pp. 17.
10. "Irene Peden". University of Washington Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Archived from the original on 2018-10-26. Retrieved October 22, 2018.
11. Wayne 2011, pp. 754.
12. "Irene Carswell Peden". American Men & Women of Science: A Biographical Directory of Today's Leaders in Physical, Biological, and Related Sciences. 2008 – via Gale.
13. "Antarctic trip was tip of the iceberg for this alumna". CU Engineering Magazine. 2018-05-01. Retrieved 2024-05-12.
14. Anonymous (27 February 1979). "Irene Carswell Peden: a vignette". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 60 (9): 145. Bibcode:1979EOSTr..60..145.. doi:10.1029/EO060i009p00145-01.
15. Peden 1998, pp. 17.
16. Narins, Brigham (2008). "Irene Carswell Peden". Notable Scientists from 1900 to the Present.
17. Karina Peggau, "Overcoming Ice and Stereotypes at the Bottom of the World," Eos, September 5, 2019.
18. Peden 1998, pp. 29.
19. Anonymous (27 February 1979). "Irene Carswell Peden: A vignette". Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union. 60 (9): 145. Bibcode:1979EOSTr..60..145.. doi:10.1029/EO060i009p00145-01.
20. Shoemaker, Brian (8 May 2002). "Dr. Irene Peden - Interview" (PDF). Retrieved 18 June 2017.^{[permanent dead link‍]}
21. Cone, Molly (1966). Crazy Mary. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
22. NAE 1993.
23. Wayne 2011, pp. 756.
24. "Diamond Awards". UW College of Engineering. 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-09.
25. "Professor Emerita Irene Peden receives Diamond Award". UW Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. June 4, 2018. Retrieved October 9, 2018.

Sources

• NAE (1993). "Dr. Irene C. Peden". Members directory. National Academy of Engineering. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
• SWE (13 March 2008). "Irene Peden". Engineering Pioneers. Society of Women Engineers. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
• Peden, Irene C. (1998). "If You Fail, There Won't Be Another Woman on the Antarctic Continent for a Generation". In Rothblum, Ester D.; Weinstock, Jackqueline S.; Morris, Jessica F. (eds.). Women in the Antarctic. Binghamton, NY: The Haworth Press. pp. 17–30. ISBN 0-7890-0247-7.
• Peden, Irene (2 March 2002a). "SWE Pioneers" (PDF). Society of Women Engineers (Interview). Interviewed by Kata, Lauren. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 February 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
• Peden, Irene (8 May 2002b). "Interview" (PDF). Polar Oral History Program (Interview). Interviewed by Shoemaker, Brian. Seattle, WA. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
• Smith, George S. (August 1969). "Early History of the Department of Electrical Engineering" (PDF). University of Washington. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
• Stanley, Autumn (1993). Mothers and Daughters of Invention: Notes for a Revised History of Technology. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. pp. 387–388. ISBN 0-8135-2197-1.
• Wayne, Tiffany K. (2011). "Peden, Irene (Carswell)". American Women of Science Since 1900: Essays A-H. Vol. 1. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 113, 754–756. ISBN 978-1-59884-158-9.

External links

• United States Antarctic Program
• University of Washington Electrical Engineering Bio