An Electrical Engineer's Career by John Baker

This is a description of my Electrical Engineering career including many of the projects at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and my consulting projects. I was educated in Electrical Engineering at Fullerton College and the University of California at Berkeley receiving my BSEE and MSEE degrees, then I went to my first engineering job in the Antenna Section of the Radio Communication Division of the U.S. Naval Research Lab (NRL) in Washington D.C.. At NRL, I worked on the Moon Relay ship-to-shore communication system for the Navy's spy ships, developing the dish antenna steering control system and other parts of the receiving system. After a four year stint at NRL, I moved back to California for an EE position in the Chemistry Electronics Division at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). I worked in several departments and on many EE projects at LLNL including the Laser Department where I developed the Wavemeter to measure and control the wavelengths of dye lasers for the AVLIS Program and then to the Global Security Department where I developed systems for the HIPROTECT project for the U.S. Border Patrol. I also developed systems as a consultant for projects including a Coin Mechanism system and Fuzzy Logic based Paint Flow control systems using Beaglebone Black micros and LCD touch panels.