Donald Oscar Pederson (September 30, 1925 – December 25, 2004) was an American professor of

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and one of the designers of

SPICE In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

, a simulator for

integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

s that has been universally used as a teaching tool and in the everyday work of circuits engineers. The IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits is named in his honor.

Early life

Pederson was born in Hallock, Minnesota to Oscar Jorgan and Beda Emilia Pederson. He attended Fergus Falls Public Schools in Fergus Falls, Minnesota during which time he built his first crystal radio by using junkyard finds and spare parts which were given by his uncle and cousin. During those years he also saved money, and eventually bought his first soldering iron and a

vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, thermionic valve (British usage), or tube (North America) is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric voltage, potential difference has been applied. It ...

. Don's passion for electronics began in high school during physics class in

Fargo, North Dakota Fargo is the List of cities in North Dakota, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Cass County, North Dakota, Cass County. The population was 125,990 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which was e ...

where his parents had moved. He graduated high school at age 17 and entered Iowa State College in the autumn of 1943, but then left for the military during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served as a private in the U.S. Army in Austria, Germany, France and the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

from 1943 to 1946. Upon his return from military service, he continued his undergraduate education at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) and earned a bachelor's degree in

in 1948. He then attended

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

for graduate school, where he received a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1949 and a Ph.D. in 1951. Pederson remained at Stanford as a researcher in the university's electronics research lab. From 1953 to 1955, he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories, in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and lectured at Newark College of Engineering (now New Jersey Institute of Technology). In 1955, Pederson joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences of the

as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. In the early 1970s he began work on

, with his colleagues from the Electronic Research Lab. He retired in 1991, but continued to teach part-time. Pederson died on December 25, 2004, in Concord, California, of complications from

Parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a neurodegenerative disease primarily of the central nervous system, affecting both motor system, motor and non-motor systems. Symptoms typically develop gradually and non-motor issues become ...

Awards

*1969: IEEE Education Medal *1984: IEEE Centennial Medal *1995: Phil Kaufman Award *1996: Computer & Communication Promotion Prize *1998: IEEE Medal of Honor for "creation of the SPICE Program, universally used for the computer aided design of circuits" Pederson was a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

and the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...

. He was also a Fellow of the

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...

, the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...

, and the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

Other recognitions

In 1987 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) named one of its major awards in his honor, the IEEE Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits. It is a Technical Field Award given by the

board of directors A board of directors is a governing body that supervises the activities of a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government agency. The powers, duties, and responsibilities of a board of directors are determined by government regulatio ...

level of the IEEE. It had previously been simply called the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award.

Personal life

Don was married to Claire N. Pederson and together they had three daughters (Emily Sanders, Margaret Stanfield, and Katharine Rookard) and a son (John). They also had four grandchildren After they divorced he married Karen Pederson.

References

External links

News of Professor Pederson's death in the UC Berkeley News

Father of SPICE language, Donald Pederson, dies at 79
– obituary in the ''

EE Times ''EE Times'' (''Electronic Engineering Times'') is an electronics industry magazine published in the United States since 1972. EE Times is currently owned by AspenCore, a division of Arrow Electronics since August 2016. Ownership and status '' ...

''
IEEE History Center biographyThe Life of SPICE
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pederson, Donald 1925 births 2004 deaths People from Hallock, Minnesota Deaths from Parkinson's disease in California IEEE Medal of Honor recipients Iowa State University alumni North Dakota State University alumni Stanford University School of Engineering alumni Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science University of California, Berkeley faculty IEEE Centennial Medal laureates United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II American electrical engineers Scientists at Bell Labs 20th-century American engineers