What Are IEEE Members?

IEEE members are the individual engineers, scientists, technologists, educators, and students who hold membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the professional association formed by the 1963 merger of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers. Membership is held by people rather than by companies, which distinguishes IEEE from a trade association: an employer can subscribe to IEEE content, but only an individual can be a member, vote in elections, hold volunteer office, or be elevated to a higher grade. Members span more than 160 countries and work across power and energy, communications, computing, control, photonics, and biomedical engineering.

Membership carries both privileges and obligations. Members receive access to publications and conference discounts, and they agree to abide by the IEEE Code of Ethics, which sets expectations on safety, honesty in technical claims, conflict of interest, and treatment of colleagues. The voting membership is also the ultimate authority in IEEE governance, since amendments to the IEEE Constitution require approval in a membership referendum.

Membership Grades

Membership is stratified by grade, and grade determines voting rights and eligibility for office. IEEE recognizes Student and Graduate Student grades, the Associate grade for people working in adjacent fields or still building qualifications, the Member grade for those holding an appropriate degree or equivalent experience, and the Senior Member and Fellow grades for demonstrated professional achievement. Special categories including Life Member, Young Professional, and Society Affiliate overlay this ladder rather than replacing it. The detailed criteria for each grade, including the degree and experience combinations that qualify a candidate, are published in the IEEE membership grade qualifications guidance.

Elevation and Recognition

Higher grades are earned by application or by nomination rather than granted automatically, with one exception: a Student or Graduate Student member is moved to the next grade for which they qualify once their graduation date passes. Senior Member is the highest grade a candidate can apply for directly, and the requirements for Senior Member grade call for at least ten years of professional work in an IEEE-designated field with significant performance demonstrated over at least five of them, supported by references from existing Senior Members or Fellows. Fellow is conferred by the Board of Directors on nomination, recognizes an extraordinary record of accomplishment, and is capped each year at a small fraction of the voting membership. IEEE publishes guidance on member grade elevation covering the evidence and endorsements each step requires.

Geographic and Technical Affiliation

Every member belongs to a geographic unit and may join one or more technical units. Geographically, members are distributed across ten regions, six covering the United States and four covering Canada, Europe with Africa and the Middle East, Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific. Regions divide into sections, sections into chapters and affinity groups, and universities host student branches that run their own technical and career programming. On the technical axis, members subscribe to societies and councils that publish journals, sponsor conferences, and support standards working groups. Society membership, not IEEE membership alone, is what typically brings a member the specialized transactions and magazines in their field.

Applications

IEEE membership supports professional activity in a range of areas, including:

• Peer review, editorial service, and authorship for IEEE journals and magazines
• Conference organization, paper submission, and technical program committees
• Standards development, where individual members ballot in working groups
• Continuing education, certification, and professional development coursework
• Local section, chapter, and student branch volunteering
• Awards, fellowships, and grade elevation as records of professional standing