EE/ECE Historical Series, Part 3: Profile of Jewell James Ebers

Jewell James Ebers, an electrical engineer and Ohio State Alumnus, is remembered for his work in understanding and employing electron devices more efficiently.

Ebers hailed from Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he was born in November of 1921. After three years of service in the U.S. Army, Ebers studied at Antioch College, a private liberal arts school in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he earned a Bachelor of Science. He went on to study electrical engineering at Ohio State University, earning his Master’s degree in 1947 and his PhD in 1950. After working at OSU as an assistant professor, Ebers left in 1951 to work at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey. It was at Bell Labs, historically one of the great research centers of the last century, that Ebers worked with fellow engineer, John Moll, to develop the Ebers-Moll model of the Bipolar Junction Transistor (BJT). This model, first shared in a paper released in 1954, provides a mathematical method to determine the current behavior of a BJT.

Sadly, Eber’s life was cut short at the age of thirty-seven after a short illness. He is remembered now through the J.J. Ebers Award, which seeks to encourage new contributors and further understanding in the field of electron devices. These awardees (not required to be IEEE or EDS members) are given a certificate and a check for $5000, which is presented at the International Electron Devices Meeting or EDS conferences.