ISA unveils 2018 fellows and award winners

Aug. 21, 2018
Awards to be presented at ISA Honors & Awards Gala Oct. 14

The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced July 25 its members who will be elevated to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow as well as winners of its 2018 Celebrating Excellence Awards, including Member’s Choice honorees chosen by their peers.

The ISA Fellow designation is granted to senior members in recognition of their engineering and scientific contributions to automation. The Celebrating Excellence Awards honor companies and individuals, members and non-members, for contributions in leadership, technical innovation and education that advance the profession.

The awards will be presented at the ISA Honors & Awards Gala on Oct. 14 during the ISA Annual Leadership Conference at the Grand Hyatt Montreal, Quebec, Canada. For conference registration and gala ticket information, call 919-549-8411 or visit the event website.

2018 ISA Fellows

  • Shankar B. Baliga, Ph.D., of General Monitors, Lake Forest, Calif. (Orange County section), for contribution to advances in adaptive industrial gas and flame detection.
  • Eric C. Cosman of OIT Concepts LLC, Midland, Mich. (Toledo section), for leadership in advancing automation cybersecurity as an essential element of operational information technology.
  • Edward L. Quinn of Technology Resources, Dana Point, Calif. (Orange county section), for contributions to the development, and implementation of control systems, data acquisition systems, instrumentation and standards for the nuclear power industry.
  • Herman E. Storey of Herman Storey Consulting, LLC, Kingwood, Texas (Houston section), for leadership in advancing the adoption and management of Foundation fieldbus, wireless networks and intelligent devices.

2018 Celebrating Excellence honors and award winners

  • Excellence in leadership: Don Bartusiak of ExxonMobil Research & Engineering, Spring, Texas, for leading a global effort to solve the skills gap in automation control systems through new development and education in industrial data communications.
  • Excellence in analytical technical innovation: Peter Geiser of NEO Monitors AS, Skedsmokorset, Norway, for developing a new wavelength range for tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy gas analyzers expanding insitu, mid-infrared applications.
  • Excellence in technical presentation: Oliver Schraa of inCTRL Solutions Inc., Oakville, Ontario (Hamilton section), and Matthew Gray of Hach, Philadelphia, Pa., for their presentation, "Process control systems at WRRFs: use of process simulation to assist controller design and tuning.”
  • Excellence in enduring service: David Robinson of Samson Controls Inc., Sherwood Park, Alberta (Edmonton section); Dean Bickerton of the Reynolds Co. (New Orleans section); and Venkiteswaran P. Raman of Tecton Engineering LLC, Mumbai (Maharashtra section), India
  • Excellence in society service: Billy Walsh of University College Cork, County Cork (Ireland section) for excellence in service by his long-term support, activity and accomplishments across every aspect of the ISA.
  • Standards excellence: Ian Verhappen of CIMA+, Calgary, Alberta, for dedication to the advancement of ISA standards.

2018 Member’s Choice honorees:

  • Division leader of the year: Hashayar Behdinan of Pointfar Automation LLC, Newhall, Calif. (Process measurement and control division)
  • Section leader of the year: Himanshu Patel of Nirma University, Gandhinagar (Gujarat section), India
  • Student mentor of the year: Kaveri Sawant of Universal College of Engineering, Thane (Maharashtra section), India
  • Volunteer leader of the year: Prof. Dattatray Sawant of MPSTME, NMIMS University, Mumbai (Maharashtra section), India