Robert Plonsey
FF, FE, Duke University, USA
Deceased

Robert Plonsey is Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University. He joined the faculty in 1983. He retired in 1996 as the Pfizer Inc./Edmund T. Pratt Jr. University Professor Emeritus of Biomedical Engineering. He received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. From 1957 to 1983, he was with Case Institute of Technology, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, where he was first a member of the Electrical Engineering Faculty and then one of the founders of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. From 1976 to 1980, he served as Department Chairman.

He is well respected in the biomedical engineering field. He received a distinguished service award from the BME Society at the 2004 annual meeting in Philadelphia. Also, in 2004 he was the recipient of the prestigious Ragnar Granit Prize for his contributions to promoting bioelectromagnetism and biomedical engineering at an international level. He was cited for his work as honorary president of the International Society of Bioelectromagnetism, his book on the subject and his many preconference and graduate courses.

His research interests are in modeling applied to electrocardiology, electrophysiology and functional electrical stimulation. He is author or co-author of several books on electromagnetic theory and bioelectromagnetism including Bioelectric Phenomena (1969), Bioelectricity: A Quantitative Approach (with Roger Barr 1988) and Bioelectromagnetism: Principles and Applications of Bioelectric and Biomagnetic Fields (with Jaakko Malmivuo 1995).

Dr. Plonsey has served on committees and been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, National Research Council and the Whitaker Foundation. From 1970 to 1972 he was President of IEEE/EMBS and from 1990 to 1991 Vice President for Technical and Conference Activities. In 1992 he was co-program chair for the IEEE/EMBS annual conference (Paris, France). Dr. Plonsey was president of the BME society in 1981 and 1982, and has served as a board member for the society.

He is a Fellow of AAAS and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 1997 he was presented the Merit Award by the IUPESM and is a Founding Member of the AIMBE and the International Academy for Medical and Biological Engineering.