Do you know an IEEE Senior Member you want to nominate for IEEE Fellow? To make the process a little bit easier, here’s a guide to help you understand how to complete this task.

First, make sure you’re eligible to make a nomination. Any member or nonmember is eligible. The only exceptions are members of the IEEE Board of Directors, IEEE Fellow Committee, an IEEE technical society’s or council’s Fellow Evaluating Committee, or IEEE staff.

Next, make sure your candidate is a Senior Member in good standing and has been a member for at least five years. Remember that affiliate membership cannot count towards those years as an IEEE member.

If the candidate you have in mind meets those conditions, you’re ready to fill out the IEEE Fellow Grade nominating form. You’ll need to solicit at least five, but no more than eight, references who are IEEE Fellows and who can assess your candidate’s contributions in his or her IEEE field of interest. You also have the option to solicit up to three endorsers who think well enough of your candidate to support the nomination.

References must be IEEE Fellows in good standing, but endorsers can be any person, including nonmembers. An IEEE section, chapter, committee, or board to which the candidate has contributed time and talents may endorse the nomination. Exceptions are the same as mentioned for nominators.

Lastly, you must choose an IEEE technical society or council whose field of interest best covers the nominee’s technical contributions. The selected technical society’s or council’s Fellow evaluating committee assesses your candidate’s technical qualifications and contributions.

FINAL STEPS All nominating materials, including the technical society or council evaluating committee’s assessment, are forwarded to the IEEE Fellow Committee. The committee is made up of 30 judges and a chair, all of whom are Fellows from the 10 IEEE regions with expertise in the technical areas represented by the IEEE technical societies and councils. The Fellow Committee recommends candidates to the IEEE Board of Directors, based on the following:

• Significance of contributions made by the nominee as an application engineer/practitioner, educator, research engineer/scientist, or technical leader

• The evaluation by the IEEE society or council

• References and endorsements

• Professional activities

• Total years in the profession

The Fellow Committee submits its recommendations to the IEEE Board of Directors during the third quarter of the year, and the Board acts upon these recommendations at its November meeting. According to the IEEE bylaws, the number of candidates recommended for election to IEEE Fellow in any one year cannot exceed one-tenth of 1 percent of the IEEE’s voting membership as of the end of the preceding year.

The deadline for nominations is 1 March 2008. For more information on nominating a Fellow for the class of 2009, read "Looking for a Few Good Fellows."