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60 I-CONNECT007 I REAL TIME WITH... IPC APEX EXPO 2020 SHOW & TELL MAGAZINE ogy side of the business, and I became more involved with that. At RBP Chemical Technol- ogy, we are active members of IPC—the global standard-setting certification organization with over 5,500 member companies worldwide. I first became involved with IPC on some of the standards committees, which I'm still involved with today. Eventually, I joined other areas, including the Suppliers Council and IPC board of directors, while also serving on many committees and subcommittees, etc. I've been very active in IPC, with at least two commit- tees per year, plus board memberships and the Suppliers Council since around 1986. I've had almost 34 years of active participation in the association as a volunteer. Also, I have devel- oped a number of technical professional devel- opment courses for IPC that I've taught over the years and continue to teach. Goldman: That's pretty extensive, which is an understatement, and certainly explains why the Dieter Bergman Fellowship Award is for those that emulate Dieter. You sure do, and I know your involvement is worldwide as well. Carano: No one could ever emulate Dieter. He was an incredible individual, and I had a chance to know him. We don't do this for the awards, as you know. You are in the IPC Hall of Fame and have received many awards over the years from your involvement as a volunteer. My first, and most important, impression of Dieter, happened when I was working Youngstown, Ohio, which was the best opportunity in the world. I was a few months into the business and assigned to micro-sections. Again, this is a fledg- ling circuit board part of our business, so I had no idea what a micro-section was. Of course, no one at Electrochem- icals did either, so it fell on me. As I did that job, grinding away, I thought, "Who would want to do this for the rest of their life?" I was getting kind of worried, think- ing, "My master's degree is going to be granted in a couple of months. Maybe I'll do something else." Then, my boss decides sent me to an IPC training course in Thousand Oaks, California, in February, which was great. It was a two-and-a-half-day training seminar on micro-sections and evaluation, which was appropriate, and the instructor was Dieter Bergman. When I met Dieter, my whole out- look on this industry changed. I caught his incredible enthusiasm and saw what he did for the industry. He didn't know me from a lump of coal, but he didn't care. He was there to teach and have fun. I left there not only much better educated in doing micro-sections but also with a whole new perspective on IPC and the electronics industry. After that, I didn't know Dieter well, but everybody else did. For years, I got to know him better by being involved in the IPC Tech- nology Roadmap, which he and I co-chaired until his passing as well as a few other com- mittees. I got to also teach some professional development courses with him. Those were some of the most fun times for me, as a pro- fessional teaching a course with Dieter for a few days on various aspects of electronics, cir- cuit boards, designs, and processes. It means a lot to me that his name is associated with this award. I've always admired Dieter, and he