Meet Peter Magyar – Coordinator for Europe, Africa, and Middle East
IEEE Life Fellow Peter Magyar currently serves as our Region 8 (Europe, Africa, and Middle East) Coordinator. He has been involved with the IEEE for 27 years. He was a founding member, Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair of the Germany Section IES/IAS/PELS Chapter (1998-2004). His chapter activity was awarded several times and he continued in multiple service periods as Chapter Coordinator in the Germany Section and in the Region 8 Committee for more than two decades.
His home Society is the Industry Application Society (IAS). He became Member-at-Large (2005-06), Inter-Society Committee Chair (2007-08), and additionally chaired other committees. For ten years (2009-18), he successfully held the role of IAS Chapters and Membership Department (CMD) Chair, developing the earlier one-man-department into a 10-committee-department. CMD formed ~100 IAS and Joint IAS Chapters and ~300 Student Branch IAS and Joint IAS Chapters in cooperation with the Societies IES, PELS, and PES. IAS became the most vibrant IEEE Society at that time, with remarkably broad student and young professional activities. Among others, three-day IAS Annual Chapter Meetings have been organized with ~200 participants and a student-led paper conference series in more than 15 countries. His IAS activity ended as IAS Director of Chapter Development (2019-21). The recent leaders of the CMD are the best IAS SB chapter chairs from that earlier period.
After retiring from IAS, he became Region 8 Life Members Committee Chair and LMC RC. He started with 14 LMAGs in 2021 and his first goal was to renew and activate the LMAGs. His second main goal was to use the available human potential for LMAG development. As a result, 87% of the life-grade membership in 42 of the 60 R8 Sections are currently affiliated with 26 Single Section and three Joint Section LMAGs. The Joint Section LMAGs cover 16 Sections in the Baltic, Gulf and Africa Council areas.
Peter´s professional activity started at the Budapest University of Technology, Hungary (1967-90) and continued in industry positions in Germany (1991-2009) and served also as an Expert Evaluator of the European Commission (2001-22). He is the owner of 25 Hungarian and 8 German patents and recipient of the Hungarian Distinguished Inventor Award in Gold (1985, 1986, 1987, 1989) as well as the IAS Distinguished Service Award (2006). He was elevated to IEEE Fellow (2007). Since retiring from the industry in 2009, he has spent his time with his family, hobbies, and IEEE activity in the Germany Section, IAS, and the Region 8 Committee, in conjunction with his LMAGs.
