Heirman, Donald N., 1940-2020
Biographical Information
Donald Nestor Heirman was born on August 16, 1940 in Mishawaka, Indiana and graduated from Mishawaka High School in 1958. He received his BSEE and MSEE degrees from Purdue University in 1962 and 1963 respectively. Heirman met his wife, Lois Marlene Smith in the administration offices of Wiley Hall. The two married on campus on June 8, 1963. Heirman was an honors student and a member of several student organizations including Omicron Delta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, and Phi Eta Sigma.
While at Purdue University, Heirman registered for Naval Reserve Officer Training (ROTC). Upon graduation, he enlisted in the United States Navy, where he served as Lieutenant at the Office of Naval Communication in the Pentagon. Heirman joined Bell Laboratories in New Jersey in 1965 and remained as a Research Reservist for the Office of Naval Research until he retired as a Commander in 1985.
Heirman worked at Bell Labs for more than three decades in numerous electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) roles. He started out completing research on the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line for Western Electric and moved on to commercial lab work, primarily working on diminishing power line noise on telephones. Later, he became the founding manager of the Global Product Compliance Laboratory (GPCL), where he was in charge of regulatory test facilities and its participation in national and international EMC standardization committees. He also served as a senior EMC consultant before retiring from Bell Labs in 1997.
In 1974, alongside his technical career at Bell Labs, Heirman started contributing to the IEEE NJ Coast EMC Chapter. Over time, his standards development efforts expanded to numerous US and international organizations. He has chaired or been a principal contributor to numerous U.S. and international EMC standards organizations, most notably American National Standards Institute (ANSI) ASC C63, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) EMC Society, and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR).
Starting in 1997, Heirman worked as adjunct professor and senior research scientist at the University of Oklahoma. He also served as the Associate Director of the University’s Center for the Study of Wireless EMC. In this role, he provided EMC consultation to graduate students and the Center’s founding organizations in their studies on EMC interaction between cellular phones and medical electronics. During this period, Heirman started his own EMC consultation business – Don HEIRMAN Consultants. He provided EMC training and education consultancy. In this role, he organized EMC workshops and training all over the U.S., provided training on standardization processes employed by IEEE, IEC, and CISPR, and offered guidance on how to become involved in standards development activities.
Heirman’s contributions to global electro-technical standardization in the field of EMC have been acknowledged in the form of various awards. He was the recipient of the IEC Lord Kelvin award, the IEEE Lawrence Cumming Award (1984), the IEEE Standards Medallion (1992), the IEEE EMC Society Richard R. Stoddard Award (1995), the IEEE Steinmetz Award (1997), the ANSI Finegan Award (2003), and the IEEE Goldsmith Legacy League award (2011). He was a life member of the Purdue Alumni Association, member of the Purdue R. B. Stewart Society, founding member of Global Policy Research Institute, and life member of Purdue President’s Council. In 2011, he received the Purdue Outstanding Electrical and Computer Engineer Award and the Purdue Purdue Pinnacle Award for his contributions to the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering, as well as his monetary donations to Purdue University.
Donald N. Heirman passed away on October 30, 2020 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.