Conference history

The IEEE International Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference is the merger of two conferences; the International Power Modulator Symposium and the High Voltage Workshop. The first joint meeting of 25th International Power Modulator Symposium and the 19th High Voltage Workshop was held in 2002. The 2004 conference was run under the name of IEEE Power Modulator Conference, and its conference proceedings were entitled the 26th International Power Modulator Symposium and the 2004 High Voltage Workshop. Until this time, the conference was only technically sponsored by IEEE, in which Power Modulator Symposium by IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS) and High Voltage Workshop by Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS). The combined conference held in 2006 was the 1st conference that had the full financial sponsorship of IEEE, through IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society, and added the technical Co-Sponsorship of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPSS) in its sponsorship list of IEEE societies, making it reach many interdisciplinary researchers, scientists and practicing engineers. Prior to 2002, the International Power Modulator Symposium held 24 conferences. The first meeting was organized by D. Ricker, U.S. Army/Evans Labs of Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories, at Fort Monmouth, NJ, in 1950, under the name Power Modulator Symposia, which was also known as the Hydrogen Thyratron Conference. For the next 25 years, the U.S. Army was the lead organizer of the conference, and it was chaired by M. H. Zinn, and then for many years by Sol Schneider, with G.W. Taylor and then by John Creedon as co-chairs. The conference name evolved over 50 years, as it is shown in the tables here. The High Voltage Workshop was held 18 times prior to 2002. The first two workshops were organized by Earle R. Bunker, Jr. and held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, CA, in 1965 and 1969, under the name Workshop on Voltage Breakdown of Electroni- Equipment at Low Air Pressure. After a 10 year break, the High Voltage Workshop was revitalized in 1979 and chaired by William Dunbar from Boeing. In the 1980?????????s and 1990?????????s, the workshop held regular meetings in annual or bi-annual intervals. The High Voltage Workshop received technical co-sponsorship by IEEE/DEIS for the first time in 1995. In 2000, the name changed to International High Voltage Workshop to acknowledge the international character of the workshop, before joining with the International Power Modulator Symposium in 2002 and then merging into the IEEE International Power Modulator and High Voltage Conference after 2006.