Andrew F. Peterson was named the recipient of the 2021 Technical Achievement Award from the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society (ACES). Peterson is a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE).

Peterson was presented with this award on August 4 at an awards ceremony that was held during the 2021 International ACES Symposium, which was held in a virtual format. The award recognizes one or more demonstrated original technical contributions in the field of applied computational electromagnetics, supported by publications, patents, and other products such as developed computer codes.

Peterson received this award “for pioneering and seminal contributions to the development of controlled accuracy computation in CEM (computational electromagnetics).” In his research, he and his students are trying to improve the accuracy and robustness of electromagnetic field computations. 

Today, many numerical solutions are obtained without any estimate of how accurate they are. Much of Peterson’s research is directed at improving this situation, so that users can ultimately request a certain accuracy level, and hopefully, the computer program is either able to produce that or inform the user that it cannot.

Peterson has been a member of the Georgia Tech ECE faculty since 1989, and he has been involved with ACES for his entire career. He has served as both a member and chair for many different committees within ACES, including most recently the finance, fellows selection, and awards committees. He served an elected term as the president of ACES from 2011-13.

Peterson has received the ACES Mainstay Award and is a three-time recipient of the ACES Valued Service Award. He was also selected for the ACES Service Award in 2016 for “sustained and exceptional leadership and service to all aspects of ACES for more than 25 years.”