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News John A. Swanson

About the Photo

On September 28, 2007, John A. Swanson visited campus to attend the Swanson School of Engineering Campaign Gala, which celebrated the success of the school’s $100 million capital campaign. While here, he took the opportunity to tour the new facilities associated with the Swanson Institute of Technical Excellence. He is pictured here peering into the walk-in anechoic chamber, an insulated area that is used to conduct radio wave research in the RFID Center of Excellence, one of the research centers under the Swanson Institute umbrella.

In spring 2006, Swanson offered ‘challenge grants’, or the offer of matching funds to help encourage other alumni to support RFID research in the school. Generous gifts were provided by Wesley Pickard (BSMIN ’61) and John Jurenko (BSEE ’56) alongside Dr. Swanson to make possible the Wesley C. Pickard RFID Anechoic Laboratory and the John A. Jurenko RFID Electricity & Magnetism Characterization Laboratory, two of the three research labs that are part of the RFID Center of Excellence.

According to Marlin Mickle, director of the RFID Center of Excellence, this kind of alumni support will only further distinguish the research taking place at Pitt. “RFID is still an evolving technology, but industry and government agencies like the Department of Defense know it is going to transform everything they do.  The resources provided by all these donors are simply invaluable to our continued scientific and engineering dominance in this field.” 

Mickle, who is also the Nickolas DeCecco Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is internationally recognized for his pioneering work in the emerging technology behind radio frequency identification, a promising new way to track goods and materials which has the potential to eliminate the bar code and dramatically improve efficiencies in inventory control and supply-chain management.

School Named in Recognition of $40 Million in Campaign Support

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