Frank Barnes, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder, has been elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering, joining nine other faculty from the campus who have been elected since the academy's formation in 1962.
Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded an engineer. Barnes was recognized for his fundamental research on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields, surgical procedures and contributions to telecommunications education.
He has been a CU faculty member since 1959, and served as chair of the department of electrical and computer engineering from 1964 to 1980. He co-founded the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program in 1971 and has served as the program director three times, most recently from 1996 to 1998. He also served as acting dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science in 1980-81.
Barnes has published more than 160 papers and holds a dozen patents, primarily in the field of electromagnetics. He and his students also developed a basket to mechanically capture kidney stones which has been used by a large number of doctors. He currently serves as president of the Bioelectromagnetics Society.
He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and a winner of the IEEE's Centennial Award and Third Millennium Medal. He received the University of Colorado's Stearns Award in 1980, and the College of Engineering and Applied Science's Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 1986. He was named a distinguished professor by the University of Colorado Board of Regents in 1997.
Barnes received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 1954 and his master's and doctoral degrees from Stanford in 1955 and 1958.
Other CU-Boulder faculty who are members of the National Academy of Engineering, and their years of election, are: Delores Etter, 2000; Martin Mikulas, 1999; Valerian Tatarskii, elected a foreign associate in 1994; Earl Gossard, 1990; Don Hearth, 1989; Richard Strauch, 1989; Jacques Pankove, 1986; Klaus Timmerhaus, 1975; and Max Peters, 1969. Barnes was nominated to the academy by the late Richard Seebass, who was a member of NAE until his death in December.