ISA salutes 2017 fellows, excellence award winners

Aug. 8, 2017
Presentations will be made at the 55th Annual ISA Honors and Awards Gala on Oct. 29 in Tampa Bay, Florida

The International Society of Automation announced July 25 the latest group of members who will be elevated to the distinguished membership grade of ISA Fellow, as well as its 2017 Celebrating Excellence Award winners, including Member's Choice honorees chosen by their peers.

ISA Fellow status is granted to senior members in recognition of their outstanding achievements in scientific/engineering fields and their contributions to the automation field as recognized by their ISA peers. ISA’s Celebrating Excellence Awards honor companies and individuals, both members and non-members, for significant contributions in leadership, technical innovation, and contributions to education that have advanced the profession. The award presentations will be made at the 55th Annual ISA Honors and Awards Gala on Oct. 29 at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, Fla.

The 2017 ISA Fellows will include:

  • Penny Chen, communications division, Yokogawa Corp. of America, for innovation and leadership in industrial wireless as related to process automation and instrumentation;
  • Gerald Combs, Ph.D., analysis division, Siemens (retired), for contributions to process analytical technologies for environmental monitoring;
  • David Neal, PE, Louisville section, Advanced Industrial Systems Inc., for contributions to the field of computer based programmable data acquisition and test systems;
  • Brent Shumaker, power industry division, Analysis & Measurement Services Corp., for development and implementation of online technologies to assess the health and remaining useful life of critical components in nuclear power plants; and
  • Iwan Van Beurden, chemical and petroleum industries division, exida, for development of probabilistic analysis safety verification data, methods, and tools used to improve the safety lifecycle in the process industries. 

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The 2017 Celebrating Excellence Honors and Awards include:

  • Excellence in Leadership recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the industry and/or profession to advance automation. It will be presented to Judith Marks, Siemens USA, for taking a leading role in STEM issues through apprenticeships to fill the skills shortage in manufacturing.
  • Excellence in Analytical Technical Innovation (endowed by the ISA Analysis Division) recognizes an individual who has played a critical role in the conception, design, and/or implementation of an innovative product, process, and/or service in the analytical technology field. It will be presented to Dale Harrison, Ph.D., VUV Analytics, for his contributions in the development of vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy instruments. 
  • Excellence in Technical Innovation (endowed by UOP, a Honeywell company) recognizes an individual who has played a critical role in the conception, design, and/or implementation of an innovative product, process, and/or service. It will go to Manikandan Pandiyan, Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Pvt., Ltd. for developing a portable, real-time electrocardiogram device for local on-chip data acquisition of health parameters and remote diagnosis.
  • Excellence in Corporate Technical Innovation, which recognizes a company whose contributions and innovations have enhanced social value. It will go to Aperio Systems for developing an innovative solution in recognizing and protecting industrial control systems from data forgery.
  • Excellence in Technical Presentation recognizes authors of the most outstanding paper, article, presentation, or document published and/or presented on behalf of ISA that introduces a new technology or explains an existing automation process. It will go to Cyrus Taft of Taft Engineering, John Sorge of Southern Company, and Mircea Lupu and Rick Kephart of Emerson Automation Solutions for their paper, “Application of model predictive control to improve steam temperature control in a pulverized-coal unit,” presented at ISA’s 59th Power Industry Division Symposium.
  • Excellence in Education recognizes an individual who has developed and/or enhanced established educational programs to advance the automation profession in educational institutions. It will go to Chetan Bhatt, GovernmentEngineeringCollege in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, for developing university courses in India using the Automation Competency Model and developing web-based, intelligent tutoring system for I&CT students.
  • Excellence in Enduring Service recognizes dedicated volunteers' service to the ISA at the grassroots level. It will go to Kenneth Belteau, process measurement and control division, Spectra Energy Transmission; M. Venkatram, Maharashtra section, Tata Electric Power Co.; and Richard O. Williams, process measurement and control division.
  • Standards Excellence recognizes an ISA standards committee member for exceptional efforts in organization, development and/or administration to further the development of ISA standards and for services to advance the mission of the society. It will go to Nicholas Sands, CAP, ISA18.2, and DuPont, for his years of dedication to ISA standards, especially development of ISA18.2.

The 2017 Member’s Choice Award winners include:

  • Division Leader of the Year recognizes a division leader whose innovative activities in the previous year provided exceptional value to a division, or enhanced an existing conference and/or symposia, or contributed to the development of a new conference and/or symposia. It will go to Sohail Iftikhar, chemical and petroleum industries division, Honeywell Process Solutions
  • Section Leader of the Year recognizes a section leader whose innovative activities in the previous year provided exceptional value to a local section. It will go to Rajesh Rathi, Bangalore section, Control Infotech Ltd.
  • Student Mentor of the Year recognizes a member whose activities in the previous year have promoted and encouraged student involvement in automation programs. It will go to S. Vivekanandan, South India section, VIT University Vellore.
  • Volunteer Leader of the Year recognizes a member who in the previous year has demonstrated exceptional leadership of a task force, committee, or board at any level within the society (section, division, district, department, executive) resulting in a specific positive outcome. It will go to Veena Hegde, Ph.D., Bangalore section, BMS College of Engineering