Wesley Snyder received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University, and his MS and PhD from the University of Illinois. He served in the US Air Force and the Peace Corps in Central Africa, and joined the Department of Electrical Engineering at NCSU in 1976.
He was Associate Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering for three years.
Dr. Snyder published the first engineering textbook in robotics in 1984. That same year saw the formation of the IEEE Robotics and Automation Council, which evolved into the R&A Society; Dr. Snyder was one of the organizers who oversaw the creation of the council from the TAB committee on robotics, and led to the formation of the Robotics and Automation Society. In 2004, Cambridge University Press published his new textbook in Machine Vision. He has just finished a new textbook on Computer Vision which Cambridge University Press has also agreed to publish.
He is a fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biomedical Engineers (AIMBE) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Dr. Snyder has been advisor for 23 MS and 22 PhD students and has published over 150 technical papers. He has worked for Westinghouse, General Electric Corporate Research Center, NASA, the German Air and Space Agency, and the Bowman Gray School of Medicine, and was vice-president for research of a small corporation. He has served in a consulting capacity since 1995 with the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO), managing and assisting in the management of research programs for that office, providing funds for basic research supporting faculty and graduate students over the United States. At ARO, he served for two years as program manager of the Information Assurance program, and six months as the manager of the Systems and Control program.
He has been involved in the activities of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for many years, including being associate editor of various journals, and organizing and chairing conferences. He was the General Chair of the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2010.
Politically, he is simultaneously just to the left of Cesar Chavez and just to the right of Genghis Khan, and is a strong advocate of moderation and compromise.
He windsurfs, throws bait to fish, skis, plays the guitar (poorly), and likes to climb mountains. He has been married to the same fabulous woman for 48 years, is the proud father of the three most wonderful children in the world (who went with him to the top of Kilimanjaro), and is the grandfather of three amazing grandchildren.