Fellows and Celebrating Excellence Award Honorees Recognized at 55th Annual ISA Honors & Awards Gala

ISA is proud to announce those ISA members elevated to the distinguished membership grade of Fellow and the Celebrating Excellence award honorees for 2017—including Member’s Choice honorees who were selected by a preponderance of votes cast by their peers.

Elevation to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow were granted to Senior Members in recognition of their exceptional engineering scientific contributions to the field of automation. ISA’s Celebrating Excellence Awards honored companies and individuals, both members and non-members, for significant contributions in leadership, technical innovation, and contributions to education that have advanced the automation profession.

Award presentations were made at the 55th Annual ISA Honors & Awards Gala on 29 October 2017 at the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay, Tampa Bay, Florida, USA.

2017 ISA Fellows

Elevation to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow is granted to ISA Senior Members in recognition of outstanding achievements in scientific or engineering fields as recognized by ISA peers.

 

Penny P. Chen, Ph.D.
Communications Division, Yokogawa Corp of America, Mclean, Virginia, USA
For innovation and leadership in industrial wireless as related to process automation and instrumentation.  

  

Gerald Combs, Ph.D.
Analysis Division, Retired (Siemens Industry), Kemp, Texas, USA
For contributions to process analytical technologies for environmental monitoring.

David L. Neal, PE
Louisville Section, Advanced Industrial Systems Inc, Harrods Creek, Kentucky, USA
For contributions to the field of computer based programmable data acquisition and test systems.

Brent Shumaker
Power Industry Division, Analysis & Measurement Services Corp, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
For development and implementation of online technologies to assess the health and remaining useful life of critical components in nuclear power plants.

Iwan Van Beurden
Chemical & Petroleum Industries Division, Exida, Sellersville, Pennsylvania, USA
For development of probabilistic analysis safety verification data, methods, and tools used to improve the safety lifecycle in the process industries.  

2017 Celebrating Excellence Honors & Awards Program

Excellence in Leadership

Recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to the industry and/or profession to advance automation.

 

Judith F. Marks
Siemens USA, Washington D.C., USA
For taking a leading role in STEM issues through apprenticeships to fill the skills shortage in manufacturing.

Excellence in Analytical Technical Innovation, Endowed by the ISA Analysis Division

Recognizes an individual who has played a critical role in the conception, design, and/or implementation of an innovative product, process, and/or service in the analytical technology field.

Dale Harrison, Ph.D.
VUV Analytics, Cedar Park, TX USA
For his contributions in the development of vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy instruments.  

Excellence in Technical Innovation, Endowed by UOP, a Honeywell Company

Recognizes an individual who has played a critical role in the conception, design, and/or implementation of an innovative product, process, and/or service.
 

Mr. Manikandan Pandiyan
Mercedes-Benz Research and Development India Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, Karnataka, India
In recognition for developing a portable real-time Electrocardiogram device for local on-chip data acquisition of health parameters and remote diagnosis.

Excellence in Corporate Technical Innovation

Recognizes the company whose contributions and innovations have enhanced social value.

APERIO Systems
Haifa, Israel
For developing an innovative solution in recognizing and protecting Industrial Control Systems against data forgery.  

Excellence in Technical Presentation

Recognizes the author(s) of the most outstanding paper, article, presentation, or document published and/or presented on behalf of ISA that introduces a new technology or explains an existing automation process.

Cyrus Taft
Taft Engineering, Harriman, TN, USA

John Sorge
Southern Company, Birmingham, AL, USA
 

Rick Kephart
Emerson Automation Solutions, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

For paper, “Application of Model Predictive Control to Improve Steam Temperature Control on a Pulverized-Coal Unit” presented at ISA 59th Power Industry Division Symposium.

Excellence in Education

Recognizes an individual who has developed and/or enhanced established educational programs to advance the automation profession in educational institutions. 

Chetan B. Bhatt
Government Engineering College, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India
For developing university courses in India using the Automation Competency Model and developing Web-based Intelligent tutoring system for I&CT students.  

Excellence in Enduring Service

Recognizes dedicated volunteer service to the Society at the grassroots level. May be presented to multiple (up to five) honorees.

Richard O. Williams
Process Measurement and Control Division
Cypress, TX, USA
For outstanding service and contributions to the Society and its members.

Division Excellence

The top three nominees were recognized and the Division Excellence Award recipient was revealed at the Gala.

2017 Division Excellence Award Recipient


For organizing ISA Food and Pharmaceutical Industries Division Symposium in collaboration with the Ireland Section, and promoting society goals.

For collaboration with ChemPID, Safety, Pulp and Paper, Communication, and Education and Management divisions in organizing 2016 ISA Process Control and Safety Symposium.

Section Excellence

Recognizes an ISA Section for development and/or execution of programs and/or services to advance the mission of the Society.

The top three nominees were recognized and the Section Excellence Award recipient was revealed at the Gala.

2017 Section Excellence Award Recipient

For hosting the third ISA International FPID Symposium in Ireland and conducting training courses on alarm management and security.

For reactivating a student section, sponsoring student team's travel to the International Instrumentation Student games and adopting two FIRST robotics teams. 

Standards Excellence

Recognizes an ISA standards committee member for exceptional efforts in organization, development and/or administration to further the development of ISA standards and for services to advance the mission of the Society. 

Nicholas P. Sands, CAP
ISA18.2
DuPont, Newark, DE, USA
For years of dedication to ISA standards, and especially the development of ISA18.2 

Member’s Choice Award Honorees

Member’s Choice candidates are nominated by the Member’s and honorees are selected by vote of the members.

Division Leader of the Year

Recognizes a Division leader whose activities in the previous year, in an innovative way, have provided exceptional value to a Division, or enhanced an existing conference and/or symposia, or contributed to the development of a new conference and/or symposia. 

Sohail Iftikhar
Process Measurement and Control Division
Honeywell Process Solutions, Houston, TX, USA  

Section Leader of the Year

Recognizes a Section leader whose activities in the previous year, in an innovative way, provided exceptional value to a local Section. 

Rajesh Rathi
Bangalore Section
Control Infotech Ltd, Bangalore, Karnataka, India  

Student Mentor of the Year

Recognizes a member whose activities in the previous year have promoted and encouraged student involvement in automation programs. 

S. Vivekanandan
Bangalore Section
VIT University Vellore, Tamilnadu, India  

Volunteer Leader of the Year

Recognizes a member who in the previous year has demonstrated exceptional leadership of a task force, committee, or board at any level within the Society (Section, Division, District, Department, Executive) resulting in a specific positive outcome.