"Rafael C. Gonzalez" received the B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Miami in 1965 and the M.E. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville, in 1967 and 1970, respectively. He joined the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) in 1970, where he became Associate Professor in 1973, Professor in 1978, and Distinguished Service Professor in 1984. He served as Chairman of the department from 1994 through 1997. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at UTK. Gonzalez is the founder of the Image & Pattern