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2011 - Isamu Akasaki
The persistent research efforts of Isamu Akasaki have resulted in the technology behind today’s high-brightness display lighting and advanced entertainment devices. During the late 1960s, Dr. Akasaki began researching solutions to the roadblocks that had prevented realization of high-performance blue LEDs and lasers. While many abandoned the challenge, his work using gallium nitride materials paid off in the 1990s with pioneering developments that led to high-brightness blue, green, and white LEDs and high-performance blue-violet semiconductor lasers. His work has influenced all subsequent developments on these LEDs and lasers and has enabled devices such as the blue-ray disc player, white illumination sources, and solid-state full-color displays. His first achievement important to the development of blue LEDs came in 1985 when he successfully grew high-quality single-crystal gallium nitride on sapphire substrates using a low-temperature buffer technology. His second was in 1989 when he used low-energy electron beam irradiation for p-type doping of gallium nitride. These achievements made at Nagoya University were necessary for further development of gallium nitride as the wide bandgap semiconductor system to enable the new light source. He then realized the first blue/ultraviolet gallium nitride LEDs. During the 1990s, Dr. Akasaki demonstrated stimulated emission in the ultraviolet region with optical excitation from gallium nitride at room temperature and electrically injected ultraviolet/purple-blue laser diodes. His inventions launched a new market for optoelectronics devices, and the Akasaki Institute at Nagoya University was founded in 2006 based on royalties from his patents.
An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Akasaki is a professor with Meijo University’s Graduate School of Science and Technology and a Distinguished University Professor of Nagoya University, Japan.
2010 - Ray Dolby
He founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965 to commercialize his methods, and his technology was soon in demand by record companies around the world. It also played a key role in the successful introduction of cassette-based recording of songs and albums, providing sound quality that was comparable to or better than vinyl recordings. Dr. Dolby adapted his technology for the broadcast and motion picture industries during the 1970s, providing immersive “surround sound.” His original recording process was refined for consumer use and “Dolby B” was licensed to large consumer electronics companies, making the technology available to the masses.
During the 1990s Dolby Laboratories transitioned from analog to address emerging digital audio technologies. “Dolby Digital” technology won widespread adoption and is an integral component built into CD and DVD players, surround-sound home theater systems and high-definition televisions. An IEEE Life Fellow and member of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Dr. Dolby is currently a member of the board at Dolby Laboratories, Inc., San Francisco, Calif.
2009 - Tingye Li
One of the most well-known individuals in optical fiber communications, Tingye Li has shaped the lightwave network infrastructure we know today. With a career spanning over 50 years, Dr. Li’s technical contributions, insight and leadership have led to innovations and advancements resulting in high-speed commercial telecommunication transmission systems. Optical fiber technology enables a huge increase in transmission capacity compared to copper-wire and radio-wave methods and provides the capacity to accommodate ever-increasing amounts of Internet traffic. Among Dr. Li’s many technical contributions was his work with Gardner Fox in the early 1960s that formulated the fundamental concepts of laser resonator modes, demonstrating that an electromagnetic wave bouncing back and forth between a pair of mirrors can resonate for a number of modes of energy distribution. This work was the first to show that an open-sided resonator containing a laser medium has unique transverse modes of resonance, which was fundamental to laser theory and practice.
Dr. Li also led several research groups at AT&T Bell Labs that demonstrated the first optical repeaters and experimented with systems showing the potential of new optical fiber technology. He was the chief proponent of adopting Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers and amplified wavelength-division multiplexing technology during the 1990s, which revolutionized high-speed long-distance communication by upgrading capacity over a hundred-fold. An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Li has previously received the OSA/IEEE John Tyndall Award, AT&T Science and Technology Medal and the IEEE Photonics Award. Retired from AT&T, Dr. Li is now an independent consultant who serves on the board of directors of several optical component and systems companies.
2008 - Dov Frohman-Bentchowsky
Dov Frohman-Bentchowsky, developer of EPROM, has had a significant impact on the computer memory industry. EPROM became a key product for the digital processing and control engineering community. Using a simple poly silicon floating gate buried in pure silicon dioxide, EPROM became the first commercially successful non-volatile memory technology. Dr. Frohman-Bentchowsky’s work led to current generations of flash memory, which are found in devices ranging from mobile phones to media players to personal computers.
A former vice president and general manager of Intel Israel until his retirement in 2001, Dr. Frohman-Bentchowsky’s career began in 1965 as a member of the technical staff at Fairchild Semiconductor, where his work focused on Metal Oxide Semiconductors (MOS). Upon joining Intel in 1969, his concentration shifted from MOS to the fundamental research that led to EPROM, which overcame many of the limitations of other early non-volatile memory technologies including complex processing, exotic materials and poor charge retention.
An IEEE Fellow, he holds six U.S. patents, has authored or co-authored more than 30 published works, including one of his most recent books, co-authored with Robert Howard, Leadership The Hard Way (www.leadershipthehardway.com). He has previously received numerous awards, among them, the IEEE Jack Morton Award and Israel Prize in Engineering. Dr. Frohman-Bentchowsky holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, and a masters and doctorate in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. He also holds an honorary doctorate from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.2007 - Russell D. Dupuis
Russell Dean Dupuis is a pioneer in the use of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology for the production of semiconductor devices. He was the first to use MOCVD to grow III-V compound solar cells, injection lasers and light-emitting diodes (LED), and demonstrated for the first time room-temperature continuous-wave operation of AlGaAs-GaAs quantum-well injection lasers, establishing that such lasers are reliable enough for practical use. Today these lasers have a wide variety of commercial uses, including laser printers, optical communication systems, CD and DVD players, bar-code scanners and medical applications. AlGaAs-GaAs is also a core element in fiber optic systems being deployed around the world. In addition, he is responsible for seminal advances in the MOCVD crystal growth process and for the initial development of sophisticated equipment for vapor-phase growth of advanced semiconductor heterostructure devices.
Dr. Dupuis is currently a professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta where he holds the titles of the Steve W. Chaddick Endowed Chair in Electro-Optics and Georgia Alliance Eminent Scholar, as well as Director of the Center for Compound Semiconductors.
An IEEE Fellow, he has previously been recognized for his achievements and contributions with the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award, the IEEE/LEOS Engineering Achievement Award, and the National Medal of Technology. He received a bachelor of science, master of science degree and doctorate in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL.
2006 - Fawwaz T. Ulaby
The R. Jamieson and Betty Williams Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and former vice president for research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Dr. Fawwaz T. Ulaby is one of the world’s foremost authorities in radar remote sensing.
In 1968, when he was an assistant professor at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, he obtained a small grant to start a research program that, over the next decade, became the world’s leading team for measuring and modeling complex, inhomogeneous terrestrial media. A critical edge to his success was his design and use of radar spectrometers, which allowed his team to develop optimum design configurations for specific radar applications. The extensive database from this program became a gold mine for theoretical modelers, allowing them to verify the applicability and predictability of their mathematical models.
This radar database became the reference standard for the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, industry and military laboratories. Dr. Ulaby was involved in the design and data analysis of several space flights that, in addition to providing a wealth of scientific information, led to a new industry that supplies radar-derived information to the timber and oil industries.
In the mid1980s, as a professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Dr. Ulaby began exploring the terahertz (THz) portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. During the next decade he worked with a research team that developed the micro-electronics for a suite of circuits and antennae for THz sensors and communication systems. Today, THz technology is a major player in new types of industrial sensor applications.
An IEEE Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, he is the recipient of the IEEE Millennium Medal, the IEEE Centennial Medal and the IEEE Electromagnetics Award.
2005 - Peter Lawrenson
Dr. Peter Lawrenson is widely known as the father of the switched reluctance (SR) drive. SR drives, the only radically new family of machine drives in a century, operate entirely on magnetic attraction, and offer an ideal fit for the electronically controlled drive systems used throughout industries and products today.
Initially, Dr. Lawrenson's new concepts were regarded by some experts as heretical but, over time, the evidence became irrefutable. After demonstrating major advantages over traditional motors, he left his post as dean of engineering at the University of Leeds to create a global business that spawned SR applications in market sectors ranging from automotive, household,mining and textiles to earth-moving equipment, industrial pumps, medical equipment and high-performance servo systems.This business, SRD, Ltd.,was later acquired by Emerson Electric Company of St. Louis, Missouri.
Previously, Dr. Lawrenson had invented and had brought to the market greatly improved synchronous reluctance motors (and precursor to SR). Also, he headed a major international study of stepping motors and systems, which led to greater understanding of their critical operating factors, such as damping, resonance and stability, and to advances in their design. He is co-author of a master reference text on electromagnetic field solutions, "The Analytical and Numerical Solution of Electric and Magnetic Fields."
An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Lawrenson is the recipient of the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, the ESSO Energy Gold Medal of The Royal Society and the J.A. Ewing Gold Medal of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was president of The Institution of Electrical Engineers from 1992 to 1993. Dr. Lawrenson is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and The Royal Society in London.
2004 - Federico Capasso
Operating at the interface between applied and basic solid-state science, Dr. Federico Capasso has long been recognized by his colleagues as a trailblazer in the fields of semiconductors and lasers. At Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Dr. Capasso pioneered the design of artificially structured materials and devices using semiconductor heterostructures.
This approach, known as band-structure or bandgap engineering, allows devices to be tailored to specific applications, opening up research directions and commercial possibilities in photonics, electronics and nanotechnology. His seminal work on the quantum cascade (QC) laser has similarly revolutionized infrared science and technology by giving access to the midinfrared spectrum. QC lasers have found wide-ranging applications in chemical sensing, medical diagnostics, spectroscopy and trace gas analysis. Dr. Capasso's many other contributions include multilayer low-noise avalanche photodiodes, the solid-state photomultiplier and seminal mid-eighties work with quantum electron devices that revived interest in multilevel logic and coding.
Dr. Capasso launched his 26-year career at Bell Labs in 1977 as a member of the technical staff. He was vice president of physical research from 2000 to 2003, when he left to become the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics at Harvard University in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. A Fellow of the IEEE, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics, American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Optical Society of America (OSA), Dr. Capasso is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. His honors include the IEEE David Sarnoff Award and OSA's R. Wood Prize. He has published more than 300 papers and holds over 40 U.S. patents.
2002 - Edward E. Hammer
For more than 45 years, Mr. Edward E. Hammer has held a place at the forefront of fluorescent lighting research. His significant technological contributions in incandescent, fluorescent and HID light sources have earned him over 35 patents and have helped to shape the modern lighting industry. During the energy crisis of the 1970s, he led the development of General Electric’s pioneering energy-efficient fluorescent lamp, the Watt-Miser. Its success was based on the krypton/argon fill gas—which was compatible with electromagnetic ballasts already in the marketplace—and a novel, electrically conductive coating on the inside of the glass tube to facilitate reliable starting. All major lamp manufacturers still use the design today, and it is the cornerstone of many energy-saving lighting programs.
In 1976, he developed the first compact fluorescent lamp. The original prototype of this spiral-shaped lamp is displayed at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. With more than 40 technical papers to his credit, Mr. Hammer has been called the Father of Fluorescent Signature Analysis. His methods for testing lamp/ballast compatibility are in use today, and are easy to apply and understand. He also has actively participated in ANSI/IEEE Standards activities as well as on IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) technical committees.
A Fellow of the IEEE and the Illuminating Engineering Society, he was won many awards including GE’s Steuben Glass Replica Award and two IAS prize paper awards. He retired earlier this year as GE’s Fluorescent Systems technical advisor, and is now an active consultant in his field.
2001 - Robert H. Dennard
In his remarkable career at IBM, Dr. Robert H. Dennard has played a key role in two of the most groundbreaking innovations of the microelectronics industry. His work on the one-transistor memory cell led the way to readily available, inexpensive, high-density memory, which has transformed the industry. Further, the principles he helped to develop for scaling MOSFET devices are so ubiquitous that they are now commonly referred to simply as “the scaling laws.”
Dr. Dennard joined the IBM Research Division in 1958, where his early experience included the study of new devices and circuits for logic and memory applications, and the development of advanced data communication techniques. Since joining the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, in Yorktown Heights, New York, in 1963 he has been involved in microelectronics research and development. His primary work there has been in MOSFETs and integrated digital circuits that use them. His accomplishments include pioneering the dynamic RAM memory cell used in most computers today, and playing a key role in the development of the concept of MOSFET scaling. He has held many titles at IBM, and is currently an IBM Fellow in the Silicon Technology Department. He has been issued 26 U.S. patents, and has 77 published technical papers or articles to his name.
Robert H. Dennard was born in Terrell, Texas, in 1932. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, in 1954 and 1956, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1958.
A Fellow of the IEEE, Dr. Dennard has earned dozens of awards and honors including the U. S. National Medal of Technology from President Reagan for his work on the one-transistor dynamic memory cell. He was also elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Dennard received the IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award, the IRI Achievement Award from the Industrial Research Institute, and the Harvey Prize from Technion, Haifa, Israel. He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and is a member of the American Philosophical Society.
