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Los Alamitos, Calif., 13 March 2026 –The IEEE Computer Society’s Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award has officially reached endowed status, ensuring its long-term sustainability thanks to $330,000 in committed pledges from ten of Professor McCluskey’s former Stanford Ph.D. advisees.
Previously funded through the Society’s general operating budget, the transition to a permanent endowment was sparked by a call to action.
“When IEEE Computer Society Interim Executive Director Anne Marie Kelly told me in October 2025 that the Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award is funded through the Society’s general operating budget and has not yet been endowed, and encouraged me to consider establishing an endowment, it prompted serious reflection. I began to ask why don’t we, his former advisees, further endow the Award—not only to honor our advisor’s enduring influence on our lives, but also to give back to our technical home, the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society, which helped make our success possible?” said Dr. Laung-Terng Wang, IEEE Life Fellow.
The endowment honors Professor Edward J. McCluskey (1929–2016), a towering figure in electrical engineering and computer science. While at MIT in 1956, he developed the Quine-McCluskey algorithm, the first systematic method for designing minimum-cost digital logic circuits, a fundamental principle still taught in classrooms globally today.
Over a career spanning four decades at Stanford University, McCluskey founded the Stanford Center for Reliable Computing and became a world-renowned authority on fault-tolerant computing. However, his impact may be best measured by the success of his students. During his career, he advised over 75 Ph.D. students at Princeton and Stanford, five of whom have been inducted into the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, and over 20 who have been named IEEE Fellows. Professor McCluskey was also the IEEE Computer Society’s first president.
The ten contributors include Dr. Laung-Terng Wang, Dr. John F. Wakerly, Dr. Nirmal R. Saxena, Dr. Robert Wei-Je Huang, Dr. Tsung-Yung Jonathan Chang, Dr. Samy Makar, Dr. Aamer Mahmood, Dr. Intaik Park, Professor James Chien-Mo Li, and Professor Nur A. Touba. Each of the donors credit McCluskey’s unique blend of technical rigor and personal friendship as their motivation.
"Ed didn’t just supervise research; he modeled what it meant to be a world-class scholar," noted Professor Nur A. Touba of the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. John Wakerly added that McCluskey’s "practical advice" was instrumental in his transition from academia to successful leadership roles at Cisco and multiple start-ups.
By securing this endowment, the IEEE Foundation ensures that the Edward J. McCluskey Technical Achievement Award will continue recognizing exceptional technical breakthroughs across all aspects of computer science.
