Father of Spice language, Donald Pederson, dies at 79

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Donald O. Pederson, one of the inventors of the Spice language and a Univeristy of California professor emeritus, died Dec. 25 from complications of Parkinson's disease. He was 79.

Pederson is credited as one of the inventors of the Simulation Program with Integrated Circuit Emphasis language, the first design language for simulating circuit behavior and first open-source language.

Pederson gained many honors during his illustrious career. He was elected as a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1982 and the National Academy of Engineering in 1974.

Other honors and awards included: a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968; an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellowship in 1988; the Berkeley Citation in 1991; the Phil Kaufman Award from the EDA Consortium in 1995; and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Medal of Honor award in 1998.

Pederson also received an honorary doctorate from Katholieke Universiteit Leuvan in Belgium.

Donald O. Pederson

In 2001, UC-Berkeley dedicated the Donald O. Pederson Center for Electronic Systems Design to recognize his contributions to computer-aided design of microelectronic systems.

Pederson was born Sept. 30, 1925, in Hallock, Minn. He left collage at Iowa State College in fall 1943 to serve in the U.S. Army from 1943 to 1946. After serving, he completed his undergraduate work at North Dakota Agricultural College (now North Dakota State University) where he earned his BSEE in 1948. He received his master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1949 and 1951, respectively.

After receiving his Ph.D., Pederson stayed on as a researcher in Stanford's electronics research lab. From 1953 to 1955, he worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories (Murray Hill, N.J.), and also lectured at Newark College of Engineering.

In 1955, Pederson joined the Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor of electrical engineering. His tenure at UC Berkeley included stints as director of the campus' Electronics Research Laboratory and as vice chair and chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He retired in 1991, but continued to teach part-time.

During his tenure, Pederson helped U.C. Berkeley establish the first on-campus fab. He was also a mentor of many other professors, including Richard Newton, current Dean of U.C. Berkeley's College of Engineering.

Pederson is survived by his wife of 27 years, Karen Pederson (Walnut Creek, Calif.); four children from his first marriage to Claire Nunan; a son, John Pederson (Novato, Calif.); daughters, Katharine Rookard (Patterson, Calif.); Margaret Stanfield (Sacramento, Calif.); and Emily Sanders (San Francisco); and four grandsons. University officials said a public memorial service is being planned for later this semester on the Berkeley campus. Information regarding the service will soon be posted on a university Web site.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Donald O. Pederson Scholarship Fund, c/o Berkeley Engineering Fund, Room 208, McLaughlin Hall, Berkeley, Calif., 94720-1722.