Senior | Chairs of ECE @ Michigan

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the RADLAB at a time when military research, especially classified, on campus was a target for student activists. In 1983, 26 students staged the first of several lab sit-ins in protest of the university’s involvement in military research. Called the Progressive Student Network, the members managed to slow operations in Senior’s group for several days. A counter-protest group, naming themselves the Nuclear Saints of America, eventually converged on the lab as well, intent on resuming its research activities uninterrupted and “cleansing the lab from evil forces.”

Original caption in the published photo, "Prof. Thomas Senior listens to students Amos Cornfeld and Nancy Arnoff read off their list of demands during the students' sit-in at his laboratory yesterday." Photo by Doug McMahon. Source: The Michigan Daily, November 8, 1983.

The protests ended without fuss in Senior’s lab, though the activists continued their movement for a time in the lab of Prof. George Haddad. Despite the targeting of the department by the protestors, there was, in fact, no nuclear research and no direct weapons research being conducted in ECE. However, there were indirect links – as there will always be in the development of new technology, especially when funded by the Department of Defense.

Prof. Senior was appointed Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in 1991, an honor bestowed on the best University educators. He also received the CoE Teaching Excellence Award, the University of Michigan Teaching Excellence Award, the Eta Kappa Nu Award Teacher of the Year Award for two years in a row, and the Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Faculty Award.

When the EECS Department was formed in 1984 out of the previous ECE Department, the Computer, Information and Control Engineering (CICE) graduate program, and the Department of Computer and Communication Sciences (CCS), he was responsible for completely revamping the course numbers and selections for the department.

In addition to his numerous teaching awards, he received the CoE Research Excellence Award, the CoE Stephen S. Atwood Award, the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE AP-S Distinguished Achievement Award, the URSI van der Pol Gold Medal, and the IEEE Electromagnetics Award.

Prof. Senior was active in the International Union for Radio Science (URSI) for almost 50 years. He was an Associate Editor and later Editor of “Radio Science” (then an URSI journal) from 1970 to 1979, and Secretary then Chair of USNC/URSI from 1979 through 1984. He was Vice Chair then Chair of URSI Commission B, 1987-1992, and Vice President then President of URSI itself from 1993-1999. He has also served on numerous URSI Committees, and wrote a history of the early years of URSI.

Senior retired as Emeritus Professor in 1998. He continued research in the RADLAB for a number of years, and wrote a history of the RADLAB and a history of the EECS Department since 1970.

Resources and Further Reading

IEEE Xplore: "Thomas B.A. Senior Wins the 2010 IEEE Electromagnetics Award"
Thomas Senior on the University of Michigan Faculty History Project
The Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science: A Brief Overview (1970 – 2010), by Thomas B.A. Senior
Radlab History, by Thomas B.A. Senior