Berita

By Fred Matos, Spectrum Manager for the United States National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA)

Spectrum Management Pioneer: Robert J. Mayher since 1932 to 2019. Robert J. Mayher, age 86, passed away on 30 April 2019 in Ellicott City, Maryland after a career that greatly enriched ITU.

The greatest joy in his professional life came from his pioneering and leading technical work in the ITU International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR), which later became the ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R), where he chaired Study Group 1 on Spectrum Management.

He made many major contributions, but foremost was his identifying the need for and then leading an international team of experts in Study Group 1 that developed the highly regarded Handbook-National Spectrum Management in 1995; and that he then led another team that greatly expanded and modernized the second edition in 2005.

His vision foresaw the need to develop user friendly spectrum management computer software that could be used by developing nations.

Mr Mayher graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an electrical engineering degree. He began his career in radio-frequency spectrum management with the IIT Research Institute at the Department of Defense Electromagnetic Compatibility Analysis Center in Annapolis, Maryland. He was a senior research engineer leading and pioneering the development of advanced analytic techniques for spectrum sharing, especially sharing between widely disparate radio services with different technical parameters.

He joined the United States Department of Commerce in 1973, and later moved to the newly formed National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as a senior spectrum engineer and Division Director. He led the development of the technical elements of the U.S. proposals to the ITU 1979 World Administrative Radio Conference (WARC-79), serving as the lead technical expert on the U.S. delegation.

Mr Mayher became a federal senior executive at NTIA where he became the Director of NTIA Office of Spectrum Plans and Policies, leading the development of U.S. spectrum management policies. He continued his ITU activities.

https://news.itu.int/tribute-to-a-spectrum-management-pioneer-robert-j-mayher-1932-2019/