News Story
Michael Pecht Elected to SAE Fellow

Professor Michael Pecht
A key contribution that Pecht has made to mobility technology is his development of the physics-of-failure (PoF) approach to electronics reliability in transportation systems. The PoF approach was developed by Pecht as a result of a study he conducted for the U.S. military, in which he analyzed the adequacy of traditional handbook-based methods of reliability assessment. Instead of assuming a constant rate of degradation of parts, the PoF approach to reliability involves a comprehensive, physics-based knowledge of how electronic components fail in the field. His PoF approach has had a wide impact on mobility technology. Industry leaders such as Boeing, Daimler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Lockheed Martin, NASA, Northrop Grumman, Rolls Royce, Nissan, and General Electric have all come to Pecht and his team at CALCE to benefit from their expertise.
Currently, Pecht is playing a critical role in developing an important new field called prognostics and health management of electronics (PHM). He founded the world’s first research consortium on PHM at CALCE and has authored the standard textbook in the field titled "Prognostics and Health Management of Electronics." He has been instrumental in creating the PHM Centre at the City University of Hong Kong and has been a sought-after lecturer and keynote speaker on PHM-related issues. Industry insiders around the world consider PHM to have the potential to revolutionize electronics through in-situ monitoring of the "health" of critical electronic systems in myriad applications including transportation, energy, and telecommunications.
Professor Pecht serves as the George Dieter Chair Professor of Mechanical Engineering with a joint appointment in the Department of Applied Mathematics. He has an M.S. in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is a Professional Engineer, an IEEE Fellow, an ASME Fellow, and an IMAPS Fellow. In 2008, Pecht was awarded the highest reliability honor, the IEEE Reliability Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He served as chief editor of the IEEE Transactions on Reliability for eight years and on the advisory board of IEEE Spectrum. He is chief editor of Microelectronics Reliability and an associate editor of the IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technology. Pecht has written more than twenty books and over 400 technical articles. He has also consulted for over 100 major international electronics companies, providing expertise in strategic planning, design, test, prognostics, IP, and risk assessment of electronic products and systems. He has previously received the European Micro and Nano-Reliability Award for outstanding contributions to reliability research, the 3M Research Award for electronics packaging, and the IMAPS William D. Ashman Memorial Achievement Award for his contributions to electronics reliability analysis.
Published January 22, 2010