Photo Gallery from Dr. Owe Petersen's Last Lecture - May 2, 2013
Owe Peterson Last Lecture 10
Owe Peterson Last Lecture 1
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Owe Peterson Last Lecture 8
Owe Peterson Last Lecture 9
Dr. Owe Petersen is currently a professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Department at MSOE, and assistant vice-president of institutional research and assessment. He was chair of the EECS Department for eight years. Before that he was the electrical engineering program director for six years, as well as directing the international EE program with the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Owe was born in Stolp, Germany (now the city of Swupsk, Poland) in September 1941, during the Second World War. Upon the death of his father in 1944 his family returned to his parents’ the home town of Husum, Germany. Eventually they moved to Flensburg, Germany, a city on the border with Denmark. Because of his ethnic background he attended the Danish school system for five years. During summers he lived on a farm in Viborg, Denmark.
In 1953 Owe, his mother and brother immigrated to the U.S., initially settling in northern Illinois before moving to Milwaukee. After graduating from Rufus King High School, he attended UW-Milwaukee for two years, transferred to UW-Madison and graduated in 1963 with a BS in electrical engineering. He started to work in a grocery store at the age of 11, and continued that "career" for many years through high school and early college.
Owe received a master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, in 1965 and 1971, respectively. In 1963 he joined AT&T Bell Laboratories in Reading, Penn., as a member of technical staff and pursued a research and development career lasting for 30 years. His work spanned technical topics such as the design of microwave and millimeter silicon devices, integrated circuit design and technology, molecular beam epitaxy, optical data links and transatlantic repeaters, reliability and metallurgy.
He was an AT&T visiting professor at North Carolina A&T State University from 1990-92. In 1993 he accepted a faculty position at MSOE as associate professor in the EECS Department.
He has coauthored more than 60 presentations and papers. In 2005 he was awarded the Ehrennaddle (honorary award) by the Lübeck University of Applied Sciences for meritorious service to the university and the field of engineering education.
Owe is a senior member of the IEEE and longtime ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission evaluator in EE. He served on many church committees at the congregation and regional level in the Lutheran Church and twice was as a delegate to the national convention. Owe and his wife Lorna are the parents of three children and grandparents of seven.