Professional Award in Electrical Engineering presented to Dr. Jerry Branson

Dr. Jerry Branson was presented with the 2018 Professional Award in Electrical  Engineering during the annual Speed School homecoming dinner held October 26 at the Brown Hotel.

Branson received his BSEE (1986), Meng (1987), and PhD (2000), all from the Speed School. He has had a diverse career working in government, academic, and private sectors. For the government, he provides engineering, consulting, and instructional services to a variety of agencies. Dr. Branson’s work with the Department of Defense resulted in him receiving a 2017 United States Career Intelligence Medal.

Within academia, he has held teaching positions at the Louisville Technical Institute, the University of Maryland, the University of Louisville, and George Mason University. In the private sector his work includes consultation, technical course design, and instruction. He provides briefing, lectures, and talks in diverse settings including a cherished talk at the Japanese Ashikaga Institute of Technology which he gave in Japanese. He is also a published author of children’s books on science and engineering, providing companion explanation books for parents.

Dr. Branson’s professional interests include technical training education and mentoring, small low power electronic circuits, dangerous goods transportation, holography, optical computing, solar and power alternatives, automated learning systems, microfabrication, acoustics, and barbershop quartet arrangement. Among his most cherished honors are his 1999 Electrical Engineering Outstanding Student Award, and his 1982 First Place Engineers’ Day Award from the Speed School. He holds patents 9,890,988 High temperature resistant shipping container and 7,830,578 Complex Electro-Optical Spatial Light Modulator and several pending.