50 Years of the DEIS

The Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS), more precisely the IEEE Professional Technical Group on Electrical Insulation, held its first meeting on 16 September 1963 in Chicago. The chairman, vice-chairman (administration), vicechairman (technical), and secretary-treasurer were J. R. Perkins, K. N. Mathes, G. L. Moses, and L. M. Johnson, respectively. The name of the Group was changed to the Electrical Insulation Group on 8 May 1964 and to the Electrical Insulation Society (EIS) on 1 January 1978. The latter change was due mainly to the initiative of President Ray Bartnikas; being an IEEE Society rather than an IEEE Group enabled EIS to be fully financially responsible for its own activities and publish its own archival journal. The most recent name change, to DEIS, occurred on 5 February 1986; Arend van Roggen felt that EIS did not reflect the significant fraction of the membership interested in the fundamental properties of dielectrics as well as their role in insulation. DEIS membership has been fairly steady around the 2,000 mark for 25 years.