Alexander “Sandy” Frazier

Developer of the first virtual circuit network switch

Comrade, 85; died June 13

Fraser developed the Datakit, the first virtual network switch, while working at the AT&T laboratory in Florham Park, New Jersey. Telecommunications technology is used by all major telephone companies in the United States.

He also invented other pioneering technologies, including the file system for the Titan supercomputer (the prototype of Atlas 2), cellular networks (the forerunner of asynchronous transfer mode), and the Euphony processor, which was one of the first systems based on a-microprocessors.

He started his career at Ferranti, an electrical and equipment company based in Manchester, England. He left in 1966 to join the University of Cambridge as Assistant Director of Research. Three years later he moved to the United States to work at AT&T Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey. There he helped develop the Moving Picture Experts’ Advanced Audio Coder, which compresses music signals. First used in the Apple iTunes program, it can now be found on all smartphones.

In his 30 years with the company, Fraser has held several senior positions with the company. He became director of the Computing Research Center in 1982 and was named executive director five years later. In 1994, he became deputy vice president of the company’s information technology research department. In 1996, he helped found AT&T Labs in Florham Park. This is the research and development division of the company, of which he was vice president for two years.

He decided to focus more on research and resigned as vice president. AT&T named him Chief Scientist, and in this position he worked to develop the architecture and protocols for the large-scale Internet so that customers could connect to it from home.

In 2002, Fraser retired and founded Fraser Research in Princeton, New Jersey, where he continued his networking work.

He received his bachelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering in 1958 from the University of Bristol in England. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 1969 from Cambridge.

Byung Guk Park

IEEE Region 10 Vice Chair

Comrade, 62; died May 20

Park was an active IEEE volunteer and at the time of his death, served as Vice Chairman of IEEE Region 10 from 2021-2022. In 2014-2015, he was chairman of the IEEE Seoul Section.

He has served on several committees at conferences including the IEEE International Meeting on Electronic Devices, the International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials, and the International Technical Conference on Circuits/Systems, Computers and Communications.

He served as editorIEEE Electronic Device Letters and Editor-in-ChiefJournal of Semiconductor Technology and Science.

From 1990 to 1993 he worked at AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey before joining Texas Instruments in Dallas. A year later, he left the company and joined Seoul National University as an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. At the time of his death, he worked at the university.

His research interests have included the design and manufacture of neuromorphic devices and circuits, flash memory, and silicon quantum devices.

Park is the author or co-author of over 1,200 scientific papers. It has obtained 107 Korean patents and 46 US patents.

He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electronics from Seoul National University in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and his Ph.D. in EE in 1990 from Stanford.

David Ellis Hepburn

Former Vice Chair of the IEEE Canadian Teachers Program.

Life senior member, 91; died March 25

Hepburn was a strong advocate of pre-college education and loved to help shape the next generation of engineers. He has been involved in the IEEE Canada Teacher at Work Program, an initiative to improve technical education in elementary and secondary schools by offering teacher lesson plans and training workshops. He served as vice chairman of the program committee. For his contributions, he was awarded the IEEE Canada Presidents’ Make-a-Difference Award 2017.

He has been an active volunteer with TryEngineering, a website that provides engineering resources for teachers, parents, and students. These include classroom practice, lesson plans, and information about engineering careers and university programs. He wrote six lessons on transformers, AC and DC motors, magnetism, basic binary systems, and solar energy.

As a student at Staffordshire University in England, he did an internship at the English Electric electrical equipment company in Stafford. Five years after graduation in 1952, he joined the utility company Hydro-Québec in Montreal as a systems engineer. In 1965, he went to work for the consulting firm Acres International in Montreal. His first assignment was on the design and construction team for the Churchill Falls Underground Hydroelectric Power Plant in Labrador, Nfl.

In 1969, he was commissioned to help build power lines in Bangladesh that connected the country’s eastern and western power grids. He and his family lived there for two years.

After that, Hepburn continued to work on international projects in countries such as Indonesia, Nepal and Pakistan.

After retiring in 1994, he worked as a consultant for organizations such as the World Bank and the Canadian International Development Agency. He has also volunteered for the Canadian Executive Service Organization, a non-profit organization that provides mentoring, coaching and training to low-income communities around the world in sectors such as alternative energy, forestry and manufacturing. He volunteered for projects in Guatemala and Honduras.

Marcus Zahn

Distinguished Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lifetime comrade, 75; died March 13

Zahn has been a professor of electrical engineering for 50 years. He taught at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1970 and worked there for 10 years before joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he spent the rest of his career.

He researched how electromagnetic fields interact with materials and developed a method for the magnetic separation of oil and water, as well as a system that detects buried dielectric, magnetic and conductive devices such as landmines.

He was director of MIT’s 6-A program, which provides undergraduate students with mentorship and internship opportunities.

Zan, who holds over 20 US patents, has worked as a consultant for Dow, Ford, Texas Instruments, and other companies.

He received his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.