After playing in the woods for much of his childhood, Brian C. Wadell graduated with a B.S.E.E. in 1981 and a M.Eng. in 1982 from Cornell University.  Although convinced after graduation that he would work with the budding digital audio industry, he was quickly assigned high frequency projects to test microwave prescalers and CCD image sensors.  This early high frequency work expanded into a career of working in microwaves and transmission lines.  Mr. Wadell came out of school with hardware, DSP, and software backgrounds--rare at the time--and found himself developing instruments that optimized the partitioning among these functions.  He specialized in the precision, high bandwidth, analog circuitry needed to drive the device under test making use of both hardware and software to create accurate source levels and measurements.

Mr. Wadell's career began with 12 years at Teradyne, Inc. in a variety of engineering roles developing radio frequency, VHF, and microwave instrumentation for testing semiconductors in high volume.  He designed the analog pin electronics for a project that developed the first production tester of CCD image sensors used in consumer cameras.

While at Teradyne he developed hardware and software to economically and quickly calibrate precision radio frequency sources, and architected the first DSP-based vector network analyzer (VNA) which included internal calibration standards, modulation, and source/measure capabilities per pin.He was also active in the statistical analysis of manufacturability at Teradyne.Mr. Wadell and a colleague, Dan Rosenthal, developed statistically-based analysis techniques to predict and eliminate intermittent failures in large ATE testers which resulted in large savings of both time and effort for the company.

After Teradyne, Brian started Guided Wave Solutions (GWS), which consulted in the area of signal integrity for high-speed backplanes, connectors, and contactors.  He wrote MS Windows software to measure and document the modeling of high-speed interconnects.  GWS also developed and wrote the self-test software for the microwave test rack of the B-2 bomber.

In 1997 Mr. Wadell joined Trakus, a Boston startup, as V.P. Hardware Engineering where he led the development of a microwave spread spectrum system used to track and measure the motion of hockey players in real time and display graphics for sports broadcast.This system won the Popular Science Top 100 Technologies of 2000 award and was demonstrated live during NHL games.Later, as CTO of Trakus, Brian led a team that developed instrumentation hardware and software for auto-racing, PGA Tour golf, and the Marathon.  In his executive role at Trakus, Brian also became involved in the business aspects of technology and designed software that automatically gathers information for competitive analysis and tracking.  In 2002, Brian joined Maxim Integrated Products as Strategic Planner where he developed integrated circuits for wireless handheld products.  He is currently a consultant in microwave and test.

Mr. Wadell is the author of the popular Transmission Line Design Handbook that compiles numerous sources of information on planar transmission lines into a design reference.  He has been granted four patents in the areas of microwave packaging, VNA architecture, and sports tracking.

Mr. Wadell has been an active member of the IEEE since his student chapter days when he helped prevent the Architecture School's Dragon from entering the Engineering Quad.  He has been active in the IEEE locally in Chapter activities--IM Chapter Chairman, co-chairman of IMTC '96, and instructor of the course "Practical Transmission Line Design in High Speed Systems."  Internationally he is active as a member of the Instrumentation and Measurement Society AdCom in numerous roles.  He was elected IEEE Fellow, the highest IEEE member status, in January 2003.

Brian enjoys woodworking, backpacking and mountaineering, and coaching U6 soccer.  He has been certified by SOLO as a Wilderness First Responder, and has level I and II Avalanche Certification.