Volume I, No. 1 of the Applied Computational Electromagnetics Newsletter was published in February 1986. This first issue contained an Introduction from the ACES' president, Electromagnetic (EM) Modeling Notes, and seven articles, all devoted to NEC or MININEC (a microcomputer version of NEC). In the Introduction President Edmund Miller (then at the University of Kansas) declared that the overall goal of the Newsletter was to foster information exchange among computer modelers, with electromagnetic applications favored over research and/or development ones. To promote this goal issues would include a modeling column, applications notes, code descriptions, tutorial articles, and a column devoted to news of the ACES Society.
When ACES began operations it received $40,000 from LLNL, money accumulated from sales of the NEC code. When activities transferred to Monterey, CA, this money was transferred to an account at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) there. In February, 1986, $10,000 of the fees collected by LLNL for the First Annual Review was also sent to NPS. There it would help defray expenses for the Second Annual Review of Progress in Applied Computational Electromagnetics, to be held at NPS in March of 1986. This location and month proved so popular that the Annual Reviews have been held at NPS in March every year since.
ACES was officially launched on March 19, 1986, at the Second Annual Review of Progress, held at NPS on March 18-20. The Review was organized by Richard W. Adler (NPS), with help in program scheduling from Robert Bevensee (LLNL). The Constitution and Bylaws were adopted with modifications by the members at the business meeting on March 18. The first slate of officers included Edmund K. Miller, President; James C. Logan (Naval Ocean Systems Center or NOSC), Vice President; Richard W. Adler, (NPS), Secretary; and James K. Breakall (LLNL), Treasurer. The ACES Administrative Committee or ADCOM established March 19 included three Directors: Robert Bevensee for 3 years; Janet McDonald (USAISEC, Ft. Huachuca), 2 years; and Donn Campbell (Army, Ft. Monmouth), 1 year. ADCOM also included eight Associate Editors of the Newsletter and six committees. These committees and their chairmen were: Membership, Samuel Sensiper (Consultant); Software Exchange, Treasurer Breakall; Technical Activities and Long Range Planning, Arthur Ludwig (General Research Corporation); Meetings, (to be organized); Newsletter, currently functioning under the associate editors; and Constitution and Bylaws, (to be organized).
The Second Annual Review presented 43 papers in seven sessions, and the
Proceedings consumed 600 pages!
A memo from Secretary Adler to the prospective and current members of ACES was circulated March 20, 1986, on the subjects of membership fees and Society privileges. Membership fees of $25 per year for individuals and $75 for organizations entitled members to the 1985 and 1986 Newsletters and the Proceedings of the Second Annual Review of Progress, 1986. The memo also included the Constitution and Bylaws of ACES. The activities of ACES were brought to the attention of a number of workers in electromagnetics by Edmund Miller and Gerald Burke (LLNL) in their short course and workshop on NEC at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, during August of 1986. The course was organized by Derek McNamara (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa) and Duncan Baker (University of Pretoria, South Africa).
The Applied Computational Electromagnetics Society Newsletter, Vol. I, No. 2, November 1986, which summarized the decisions of March 18 and 19, was edited by Robert Bevensee, with the associate editors Virgil Arens (Arens Applied Electromagnetics), Ronald Marhefka (Ohio State University), R. Dawson Coblin (Lockheed Missiles and Space Co.), James Logan (NOSC), Donn Campbell, Stanley Kubina (Concordia University), and David E. Stein (U.S. Air Force).