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October 29, 2007 I had the honor and pleasure of presenting, at
the IEEE/NPSS Nuclear Science Sym-posium luncheon in Hawaii, the
most prestigious and selective award of the Radiation Instrumentation
Steering Committee (RISC): the Radiation Instrumentation Outstanding
Achievement Award. The award was established in 2001 to recognize
outstanding contributions to the fields of radiation instrumentation
and measurement techniques for ionizing radiation, and was awarded
every odd-numbered year since that date. The award is intended to
honor a lifetime dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in the area
of radiation detection.
The principal criteria for the award are the originality and impact
of the contributions to the field, the cumulative research contributions
over a career, and the influence on the field through education.
The honors and awards committee of the RISC elected Professor Glenn
Knoll as this year’s recipient. He is a Professor Emeritus
of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences at The University
of Michigan, where he is active on a part-time research appointment.
Following his undergraduate education at Case Institute of Technology,
he earned a Master's degree from Stanford University and a doctorate
in Nuclear Engineering from the University of Michigan. He joined
the Michigan faculty in 1962, and served as Chairman of the Department
of Nuclear Engineering and as Interim Dean of the College of Engineering.
His research interests have centered on radiation measurements,
nuclear instrumentation, and radiation imaging. He is author or
co-author of over 200 technical publications, 7 patents, and 2 textbooks.
In the course of his tenure at the University of Michigan he was
advisor to 26 Ph. D. students pursuing degrees in nuclear engineering.
Many of these graduates then proceeded to build careers in the area
of radiation instrumentation.
Professor Knoll has been elected a Fellow of the American Nuclear
Society, the IEEE, and the American Institute for Medical and Biological
Engineering. In the course of his career he received several awards
from professional societies, including the Glenn Murphy Award of
the American Society for Engineering Education, the ANS Arthur Holly
Compton Award, and the Annual Merit Award of the Nuclear and Plasma
Sciences Society (NPSS) of IEEE.
Professor Knoll served for many years as receiving editor for the
journal Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Part
A, and is a current member of its Editorial Advisory Board. He has
also served on the editorial boards for several other scientific
journals. In 2000 he received the highest faculty award from the
College of Engineering of the University of Michigan, the Stephen
E. Attwood Award. In 1999, he was inducted to membership in the
National Academy of Engineering. His textbook, titled “Radiation
Detection and Measurement”, now in its third edition, is widely
regarded as the standard in its field, and is in use at many universities
and institutions worldwide. Many of us have been inspired by his
legacy and important contributions to the field.
The citation on the award reads ‘For contributions to the
education of a generation of nuclear scientists and advancement
of the science of radiation detection.’
The award comes with a plaque and certificate, and a $2,000 check,
which Professor Knoll has elected to donate to the recently established
John King Scholarship Fund at the University of Michigan.
Submitted
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