IEEE Medal for Environmental and Safety Technologies Recipients

2011 - James F. Gibbons

For over 50 years, James F. Gibbons’ commitment to building relationships between academia and industry has been a key to the success of Stanford University’s School of Engineering and has also helped fuel innovations developed by Silicon Valley. He built Stanford’s first semiconductor processing laboratory in 1957, creating a major new direction for Stanford’s Electrical Engineering Department. Later, he was instrumental in creating Stanford’s Center for Integrated Systems (CIS, 1980), providing a first-class facility for faculty and students to prototype state-of-the-art chips and explore research questions.  Dr. Gibbons and his colleagues created a new model for the Center that allows corporate partners to provide support for and actively participate in its ongoing research. The CIS continues to serve as an important industry source for precompetitive research. As dean of Stanford’s School of Engineering from 1984 to 1996, he brought the Department of Computer Science into the School and initiated integration of that discipline into its teaching and research. He was instrumental in fundraising efforts that led to construction of the Gates Computer Science Building, the Paul Allen Wing for CIS, the Packard Electrical Engineering Building, and the Hewlett Teaching Center. With the participation of venture capitalists, he created the Stanford Engineering Venture Fund to build the School’s endowment, and he initiated education in entrepreneurship through the widely respected Stanford Technology Ventures program. Dr. Gibbons’ research contributions include pioneering work on implantation and rapid thermal processing for semiconductor chips, both of which are foundational technologies in today’s semiconductor industry. He also developed in 1972 a video-based learning process called Tutored Video Instruction (TVI), combining video instruction with an on-site tutor to provide graduate-level education to engineers in the field, a program especially valuable for companies with global engineering teams.

An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Gibbons is currently a research professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University, Calif.

2010 - John L. (Larry) Chalfan, Viccy Salazar,and Wayne F. Rifer

The efforts of Larry Chalfan, Viccy Salazar and Wayne Rifer in developing the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) have spurred the electronics industry to go “green.” EPEAT was launched in 2006 as the culmination of over 100 stakeholders representing diverse backgrounds working together to create a system for identifying computer equipment that is environmentally friendly. EPEAT is used by government agencies, universities, hospitals and corporations to ensure they are purchasing green electronics products.

The trio’s leadership and commitment was a key factor to their overcoming the immense challenge of guiding the group of electronics manufacturers and purchasers, environmental advocacy groups, researchers, recyclers, state and local governments and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to a consensus on the environmental criteria. This work resulted in the creation of IEEE Standard 1680, which became the technical basis for the EPEAT certification system. Mr. Rifer saw the need for a common system with which to measure a product’s environmental performance and that would provide incentive to companies to produce green technology and he enlisted the help of Mr. Chalfan.

Mr. Chalfan provided project management support and wrote the grant proposal to the EPA. Ms. Salazar was the EPA manager for the grant that funded EPEAT’s development. Together they facilitated the stakeholder dialogue that led to consensus. They guided all stakeholders, including EPA, to jointly decide the criteria, which was instrumental in developing a resource supported by all stakeholders. They also worked with large institutional purchasers, including federal and state governments, to ensure the standard’s relevance in the marketplace. EPEAT’s impact continues to grow as standards are being expanded to cover televisions and imaging products.

An IEEE Associate Member, Mr. Chalfan founded the Zero Waste Alliance, Portland, Ore., in 1999, from which he retired in 2009 as executive director.

Ms. Salazar joined the EPA in 1994, where she addresses environmental issues through holistic, lifecycle approaches. She currently leads the EPA’s Region 10 Materials Management and Stewardship Team, Seattle, Wash.
 
An IEEE Member, Mr. Rifer was co-chair of the IEEE Environmental Assessment Standards Committee, which sponsored the IEEE 1680 family of standards. He is currently the director of Standards and Operations with the Green Electronics Council, Portland, Ore.
 

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