Distinguished Lecturer Program

The primary purpose of the SMC Society Distinguished Lecturer Program is to help Society Chapters provide interesting and informative programs to serve the needs of members of the SMC Society and to enhance their professional vitality by keeping them informed of new technological developments and applications. The Distinguished Lecturer Program should not support speakers for conference, symposium, workshop or university seminars.

The SMC Society has agreed to a cost sharing plan which may be used by IEEE chapters, sections and student groups. IEEE student groups are especially encouraged to make use of the Program to invite outstanding speakers. Distinguished lecturers will receive no honorarium.

Requesting a Distinguished Lecturer

Based on the interests of the members, the SMC Society Chapter Chair selects a topic and lecturer from the list of SMC Society Distinguished Lecturers. As soon as the Chapter Chair is interested in inviting the distinguished lecturer, he or she should submit a proposal to the Vice President for Membership for approval. The proposal should be received by the Vice President for Membership at least four weeks before the proposed visit and should include the following items:

  • The name of the distinguished lecturer and topic of the lecture
  • Date and venue
  • Expected impact on the chapter
  • Estimated attendance
  • Amount of desired travel support
  • Amount of local support
  • Travel support is up to $800 USD if the one-way, non-stop travel time is within 6 hours, and up to $1,600 USD if more than 6 hours

The Vice President for Membership reviews the proposal based on the above items, the budget of the Distinguished Lecturers program, and balance of requests among presenters. It should be noted that there is no guarantee that funds will be available to support the request, so it is strongly advised to submit the proposal as soon as possible.

If the proposal is approved, the Chapter Chair should contact the distinguished lecturer to finalize the arrangements. The lecture should be open to all members of IEEE. The Chapter Chair should publicize the event in the chapter newsletter and in the SMC Society e-Newsletter.

Important Information

Due to the limited budget of the Distinguished Lecturer Program, we can approve only one DL visit per year for a Chapter and for a Distinguished Lecturer.

If a Distinguished Lecturer would be invited a second time in the same year, the second lecture should be in a region of strategic priority in 2018, i.e. China, Brazil, Eastern Europe, India or Australia.

Reimbursement Requests

  1. Within three months of the visit, the Chapter Chair should submit a report for publishing in the SMC Society e-Newsletter to the Vice President for Membership. The chair may also request reimbursement of the distinguished lecturer’s travel expenses.
  2. The distinguished lecturer emails an IEEE travel reimbursement form to the Vice President for Membership with a copy to the Treasurer.
  3. The distinguished lecturer mails a hard copy of the signed form and the travel receipts commensurate with the limits to:
    Alyson Rupp
    IEEE
    445 Hoes Lane
    PO Box 1331
    Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331
    USA

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