In October 2001, Bill O’Brien decided to step down as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE UFFC Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control after faithfully serving as the Editor-in Chief for 16 years, from the November 1985 issue through the end of 2001. Under Bill’s leadership a number of significant changes took place in the management and quality of the transactions. Bill authored an Associate Editors’ Procedure Manual and trained over 60 Associate Editors during his tenure. The annual number of printed pages doubled to over 1800 pages. The appearance of the Transactions was upgraded several times, including improving the quality of the paper and enhancing the cover with member-supplied cover images. Bill led the effort to have the Transactions available to all IEEE UFFC members on the web. A comprehensive manuscript tracking system was developed to better manage the review and publication processes and help reduce the time from manuscript submittal to publication. There were substantial contributions to maintaining a low page cost of the Transactions.
Over the past 8 years, there have been 15 special issues. In collaboration with a dedicated group of Associate Editors and Guest Editors, significant contributions were made that improved the quality and widened the scope of the UFFC Transactions. The number of contributed papers increased substantially with papers from outside the United States now in the majority. The UFFC Transactions is a smooth-running and highly respected publication. In recent years, the Transactions has ranked 6th among 20 acoustic journals and 18th among 144 journals in the electrical and electronic engineering category based upon reference indices. The UFFC Transactions have had only three editors since its inception in 1954, Oskar Mattiat, Steven Wanuga, and William D. O'Brien, Jr.
Bill will be missed at the helm of the UFFC Transactions but will continue to make contributions to the IEEE, the UFFC Society, student education, and the technical world from his position as Professor and Director of the Bioacoustics Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois. As a long time member and contributor to the IEEE UFFC Society, Secretary-Treasurer (1972-1980), Past President (1982-1983), UFFC Society Distinguished Lecturer (1997-1998), Chair of three Ultrasonic Symposia (1981, 1988, and 2001), and award honoree of the IEEE, we expect to see Bill, with his characteristic handlebar moustache, around for a long time to come.
We extend our congratulations to Bill on a job well done and wish him the very best in his future activities.
Fred S. Hickernell,
President, UFFC Society, 2000-2001
© 2002, by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. All rights reserved.