SAN DIEGO — Longtime standards developer Doug Pauls has been inducted into the IPC Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame. Pauls, a principal materials and process engineer at Rockwell Collins, has been involved with IPC since the 1980s.

The announcement of Pauls' receipt of IPC's highest individual honor came during the IPC Apex Expo trade show here at the San Diego Convention Center.

Pauls has been a stalwart on IPC committees ranging from circuit board cleaning to performance over the majority of his 30-plus year career. He has chaired the Cleaning and Coating Committee and led the trade group's efforts in bare board cleanliness, solder mask, surface insulation resistance, chemical characterization, conformal coating, cleaning processes, and materials and process compatibility testing. He has served as a US representative to ISO and IEC working groups on SIR and electromigration reliability standards. He has also participated in numerous national and international consortia on electronics manufacturing materials and processes. From 2012-14, he chaired the IPC Technical Activities Executive Committee (TAEC), which oversees all IPC standards activities. He also is a fixture on the IPC Technet help forum.

Pauls has spent the past 16 years with Rockwell Collins. Prior to that, he was technical director at Contamination Studies Laboratories (now Foresite), and spent nearly 10 years as materials engineer at the Naval Avionics Center. He was named Rockwell's Engineer of the Year award in 2004.

Upon being elected chair of the TAEC, then-IPC vice president of standards and technology Dave Torp said of Pauls: “Doug is one of IPC’s most prolific writers of IPC documents, but it is well known that his drafts have to be checked closely for zany comments. He keeps us on our toes, but his humor is a gift that brings people together and keeps us smiling even through the tough times.”

Pauls becomes the 36th person to be inducted to the IPC Hall, which is named for IPC's founding executive director.