Your IEEE Membership

A Graduate Student member must carry at least 50% of a normal full-time academic program as a registered graduate student in a regular course of study in IEEE- designated fields. The total cumulative period for a member to hold the Student member grade and/or the Graduate Student member grade is limited to eight years.

Graduate Student members, upon graduation or upon reaching the total cumulative eight-year limit as a Graduate Student member (whichever occurs first), will be transferred automatically to member grade.

Associate member grade is designed for technical and non-technical individuals who do not meet the qualifications for member grade but who wish to benefit from membership and partnership in IEEE, and for those who are progressing, through continuing education and work experience, toward qualifications for member grade.

Member grade is limited to those who have satisfied IEEE-specified educational requirements and/or who have demonstrated professional competence in IEEE-designated fields of interest. For admission or transfer to the grade of member, a candidate may be either:

• An individual who has received a three- to five-year university-level or higher degree from an accredited institution or program and in an IEEE-designated field
• An individual who has received a three- to five-year university-level or higher degree from an accredited institution or program and who has at least three years of professional work experience engaged in teaching, creating, developing, practicing, or managing in IEEE-designated field
• An individual who, through at least six years of professional work experience, has demonstrated competence in teaching, creating, developing, practicing, or managing within IEEE-designated fields

The grade of Senior member is the highest for which application may be made and requires experience reflecting professional maturity. For admission or transfer to the grade of Senior member, a candidate shall be an engineer, scientist, educator, technical executive, or originator in IEEE-designated fields.

The candidate shall have been in professional practice for at least ten years and shall have shown significant performance over a period of at least five of those years, such performance including one or more of the following:

• Substantial responsibility or achievement in one or more IEEE-designated fields
• Publication of papers, books, or inventions in one or more IEEE-designated fields
• Technical direction or management of important work with evidence of accomplishment in one or more IEEE-designated fields
• Recognised contributions to the welfare of the professions encompassed by one or more of the IEEE-designated fields
• Development or furtherance of important courses in one or more of the IEEE-designated fields at an institution in the REP list
• Contributions equivalent to those of the above areas related to IEEE-designated fields, provided these contributions serve to advance progress substantially in IEEE-designated fields

If you think you would qualify for elevation to senior membership and want to apply, but do not know enough senior members to support you application, then read the information in the Membership Development Team section and get in touch with one of the members of the team to see how they can support you.

The grade of Fellow recognizes unusual distinction in the profession and is conferred only by invitation of the Board of Directors upon a person with an extraordinary record of accomplishments in any of IEEE’s designated fields of interest.

The year of election to the grade of Fellow is the year following affirmative action by the Board of Directors in conferring the grade of Fellow. The candidate shall hold Senior member grade at the time the nomination is submitted. Normally, the candidate shall have been a member in any grade for a period of five years or more preceding 1 January of the year of election; however, the five-year membership requirement may be waived for a Fellow candidate who has been engaged in professional practice (as needed to qualify for Senior member grade) in a geographical area where, in the judgement of the Board of Directors, it was difficult to become a member previously, as evidenced by the absence of a Section previously and the recent formation of a new Section to cover that geographical area. In such case, membership of five years or more in a recognised local electrical, electronics, or computer-engineering society may substitute for the five-year IEEE membership requirement, when the nomination is submitted within four years after the formation of the new Section.