W.K. (Ken) Dawson,
longtime editor of the NPSS Newsletter and a former Society President
and IEEE Board of Directors member, has been honored with the
2003 Richard M. Emberson Award. The citation reads, “For
leadership in influencing and motivating actions leading to significant
improvements in the Institute’s Information Technology System
and the interaction between technical and publication activities,”
work that was accomplished during Ken’s service on the IEEE
Board of Directors. He was the first non-US Division Director.
His term as Director was followed by two terms as VP for Publication
Activities, overseeing the heart of IEEE’s business operations.
The award will be presented at the IEEE Honors Ceremony this June
in Nashville.
The Emberson Award was established in 1986 in honor of Dr. Richard
Emberson’s manifold contributions to IEEE Technical Activities
as both a volunteer and a staff member. Ken meets the spirit of
the Emberson Award with an impressive IEEE service resumé
including: Awards Board, Information Systems Advisory Committee,
Implementation Committee for Structural Reorganization, By-Laws
Task Force (Chair), Best Business Practices Task Force, TAB Periodicals
Council, RAB/TAB Transnational Committee, and The Institute Editorial
Advisory Board, to name but a few! Ken was chair of the 1998 TAB
Periodical Committee when he was forced to curtail committee activities
for health reasons. One of his legacy accomplishments was to pioneer
the inclusion of young members on an IEEE Board which served as
a precursor to the addition of GOLD members (Graduates of the
Last Decade) to Board of Directors Committees, which has since
become a BoD requirement.
In real life Ken has had a distinguished career in the field of
particle accelerator control systems and operations at the Tri-University
Meson Facility (TRIUMF) in Vancouver, as a Professor at the University
of Alberta Physics Department, and as one of the pioneers in advancing
instrumentation systems for accelerators and experiments through
standards work of the NPSS headed by another true pioneer, Louis
Costrell of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST). These standards, known by their abbreviations as NIM,
CAMAC and FASTBUS, set the stage for systems that have served
research laboratories as well as specialized industries for over
three decades, and TRIUMF under Ken’s leadership has been
on the cutting edge of implementation. Lou recalls some memories
from his long association with Ken in this work:
“In late January of 1969 I received
a telephone call from a professor of physics at the University
of Alberta. He said that he had heard that the NIM Committee
was working with European colleagues on a computer- oriented
data acquisition system and he wondered if it would be suitable
for the control system of the negative ion cyclotron being constructed
at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. My response
was that in a few weeks (February 4 and 5) we were meeting in
New York City with colleagues from Harwell, Saclay, CERN and
the Hahn Meitner Institute to discuss the system (since designated
as CAMAC), so why not join us …. He did just that–and
that was how Ken Dawson first became involved with the NIM Committee,
NPSS, and the IEEE.
“And, happy days, he has been with us ever since.
“ If you ever take a walk with Ken, be it in Geneva or
Paris or Toronto or San Francisco or Santa Fe or New York or
Boulder or in any of many other cities, you will not pass a
single bookstore–you will enter it. And Ken will browse
through the shelves and will leave with at least one book under
his arm. Since Ken is a prolific reader and collector of books,
the basement of his house is lined with shelves filled with
thousands of books. Fortunately they are on a lower level or
the floor would surely collapse…
“As a Publications Editor and Protector of the Queen’s
English, Ken is very particular. He and I differ on the use
of commas–he feels I use too many and I feel he uses too
few. Attempting to induce him to be more kindly disposed to
their use, I regularly send him a batch. And at one point in
a report where I had used a number of commas, I inserted a footnote
as follows:
A comma here, a comma
there
The two of them comprise a pair
But we can make it three or four
And in some cases even more
And that of course Ken will deplore
Beyond his reach the numbers soar
He certainly cannot ignore
What seems to be an endless store
OF THOSE DAMN COMMAS
- Lou
After obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree
at Université Laval (1951) and Master’s and PhD Degrees
in Nuclear Physics at Queens University (1951-55), Ken began his
professional career with the Defence Research Board (DRB) of Canada
at a weapons research laboratory at Suffield, Alberta in 1955.
Ken recalls those early days fondly:
“In 1954-55 a group
of us, most fresh PhDs, was hired by DRB to work on instrumentation
for the British weapons tests in Australia. While working on this
during the day three of us ran a basic research program nights
and weekends using fast neutron time-of-flight techniques as all
the equipment we needed was either there or we could build it.
The moratorium on open air testing was called several years later
so our research program quickly expanded into the day time hours
too. About a year or so after the moratorium some administrator
in Ottawa finally realized we were still there ordering stuff
and getting paid. This problem was solved by closing our part
of the station. Upon our request we were told that DRB would sell
all our equipment, including a small Van De Graaff generator for
the proverbial $1.00 to any university that would have us and
properly house our equipment. After much looking around (have
Van De Graaff, will travel!) we found one on our doorstep. The
University of Alberta was in the process of building up its Physics
Department. During the previous two years it had formed strong
groups in theory, geophysics and solid state. They were looking
to do the same in nuclear physics. We had the answer for them!
An agreement was quickly reached and in less than a year all three
of us, plus three of our best technicians were U of A employees
housed in a new building and the grants started flowing in. This
was the start of the U of A Nuclear Research Centre now called
the Centre for Subatomic Research. Our other colleagues went off
to DRB posts in Ottawa and Halifax.
Those were the days!”
Ken’s distinguished career at the University
of Alberta that started in 1959 eventually led him into key positions
at the new TRIUMF laboratory, from 1982 to the present, where
though now retired he maintains an office for his myriad advisory
and volunteer activities. From 1982 until his retirement and receipt
of the rank Professor Emeritus in 1993 he served as a Division
Head and Special Advisor to the Director. His technical and scientific
responsibilities at TRIUMF involved electronics, computing and
controls for medium and large scale physics applications.
Although the Emberson Award is a highly significant honor, Ken’s
contributions to the technical and administrative work of IEEE
through the NPSS AdCom over many more years are equally deserving
of mention. Ken was first elected to the NPSS AdCom in 1984-87,
became Secretary in 1985-86 and President in 1987-88. He was honored
with election to IEEE Fellow in 1991 for his work in standards,
data acquisition and control systems; and with the Society’s
Richard F. Shea Award in 1994 for Society leadership as President,
Editor-in Chief and countless contributions and leadership to
committees, organizing of conferences, publications and standards.
Continuing working with the Society as Past President, he successfully
contended for Division IV Director in 93-94 and then served subsequently
as VP Publication Activities as described above.
For NPSS, Ken single-handedly created the current NPSS Yearbook
and Directory, which required a huge effort to research and document
a complete history of volunteer contributions to that body, as
well as to format its entire contents describing the Society’s
technical committees, areas of interest, administrative and liaison
committees, in addition to the complete member directory. He continues
to be the spirit and driving force behind one of the best Newsletters
of any IEEE Society, routinely spicing technical news and reports
with quotes and witticisms gleaned no doubt from historical biographies
filling the W.K. Dawson Library.
Congratulations to Ken for the recognition from IEEE of what we
in NPSS have already known, that he is an outstanding citizen
of the IEEE, the NPSS, the University Physics Research Community
and his profession as a whole. The Emberson is the latest award
in a series of highly deserved honors given to Ken in appreciation
for his insightful, creative, unselfish, humorous, enthusiastic
and dedicated efforts in our behalf over more than three decades.
This unanticipated article was prepared by Ray Larsen who can
be reached at SLAC, MS 66, Stanford University, P.O. Box 4349,
Stanford, CA 94309; Phone: +1 650 926-4907; Fax: +1 650 926-5124;
E-mail: larsen@ slac.stanford.edu.
Editor's note: The article appears because the editor works
on the premise that all NPSS members in good standing, such as
Ray, should have access to the pages of their newsletter for potentially
relevant material. This even if the editor finds that material
somewhat embarrassing. He also appreciates Lou Costrell's contribution
and would like to point out that, thank you, quite a few commas
still remain from the last shipment.
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W. Kenneth Dawson
2003 IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award |
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