By Joseph Herkert and Clinton J. Andrews

The IEEE Society on Social Implications of Technology (SSIT) lost one of its leading lights when Stephen H. “Steve” Unger passed away on 4 July 2023, at the age of 92 (https://technologyandsociety.org/ssit-csit-co-founder-stephen-h-unger-dies/). Unger’s life and career have three types of significance for SSIT, IEEE, and the engineering profession. First, Steve Unger was a celebrated engineer, professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Columbia University, and IEEE Life Fellow, who penned two books on digital logic [1], [2] and while at Bell Labs participated in the development of the electronic telephone switching system. Second, Unger was a co-founder of SSIT’s predecessor organization, the Committee on Social Implications of Technology (CSIT) [3], and an active member and leader during SSIT’s first two and one-half decades. Third, Unger was a pioneer in the emerging field of engineering ethics [4] including authoring one of the first textbooks on the subject [5] and drawing on his experiences within IEEE/CSIT/SSIT to illustrate the importance of professional society involvement in promoting and supporting ethical behavior by engineers. In this remembrance, we focus on the last two of these achievements, his role in CSIT/SSIT and his contributions to the field of engineering ethics.

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 https://technologyandsociety.org/remembering-an-ethical-engineering-advocate/