On behalf of the SID Honors and Awards Committee (H&AC), I am appealing for your active participation in the nomination of deserving individuals for the various SID honors and awards. The SID Board of Directors, based on recommendations made by the H&AC, grants all the awards. These awards include five major prizes awarded to individuals, not necessarily members of SID, based upon their outstanding achievements. The Karl Ferdinand Braun prize is awarded for "Outstanding Technical Achievement in, or contribution to, Display Technology." The prize is named in honor of the German physicist and Nobel Laureate Karl Ferdinand Braun who, in 1897, invented the cathode-rat tube (CRT). Scientific and technical achievements that cover either a wide range of display technologies or the fundamental principles of a specific technology are the prime reasons for awarding this prize to a nominee. The Jan Rajchman prize is awarded for "Outstanding Scientific and Technical Achievement or Research in the Field of Flat-Panel Displays." This prize is specifically dedicated to those individuals who have made major contributions to one of the flat-panel-display technologies or, through their research activities, have advanced the state of understanding of one of those technologies. The Otto Schade prize is awarded for "Outstanding Scientific or Technical Achievement in the Advancement of Functional Performance and/or Image Quality of Information Displays." This prize is named in honor of the pioneering RCA engineer Otto Schade, who invented the concept of the Modulation Transfer Function (MTF) and who used it to characterize the entire display system, including the human observer. The advancement for this prize may be achieved in any display technology or display system or may be of a more general or theoretical nature. The scope of eligible advancement is broadly envisioned to encompass the areas of display systems, display electronics, applied vision and display human factors, image processing, and display metrology. The nature of eligible advancements is not limited and may be in the form of theoretical or mathematical models, algorithms, software, hardware, or innovative methods of display-performance measurement, and image-quality characterization. Each of these above-mentioned prizes carries a $2000 stipend sponsored by Thompson, Inc., Sharp Corporation, and Philips Consumer Electronics, respectively.

The Slottow–Owaki prize is awarded for "Outstanding Contributions to the Education and Training of Students and Professionals in the Field of Information Display." This prize is named in honor of Professor H. Gene Slottow, University of Illinois, an inventor of the plasma display and Professor Kenichi Owaki from the Hiroshima Institute of Technology and an early leader of the pioneering Fujitsu Plasma Display program. The oustanding education and training contributions recognized by this prize is not limited to those of a professor in a formal university, but may also include training given by researchers, engineers, and managers in industry who have done an outstanding job developing information-display professionals. The Slottow–Owaki prize carries a $2000 stipend made possible by a generous gift from Fujitsu, Ltd., and Professor Tsutae Shinoda.

The fifth major SID award, the Lewis and Beatrice Winner Award, is awarded for "Exceptional and Sustained Service to the Society." This award is granted exclusively to those who have worked hard over many years to further the goals of the Society.

The membership grade of SID Fellow Award is one of unusual professional distinction. Each year the SID Board of Directors elects a limited number (up to 0.1% of the membership in that year) of SID members in good standing to the grade of Fellow. To be eligible, candidates must have been members at the time of nomination for at least 5 years, with the last 3 years consecutive. A candidate for election to Fellow is a member with "Outstanding Qualifications and Experience as a Scientist or Engineer in the Field of Information Display who has made Widely Recognized and Significant Contributions to the Advancement of the Display Field" over a sustained period of time. SID members practicing in the field recognize the nominee's work as providing significant technical contributors to knowledge in their area(s) of expertise. For this reason, five endorsements from SID members are required to accompany each Fellow nomination. Each Fellow nomination is evaluated by the H&AC, based on a weighted set of five criteria. These criteria and their assigned weights are creativity and patents, 30%; technical accomplishments and publications, 30%; technical leadership, 20%; service to SID, 15%; and other accomplishments, 5%. When submitting a Fellow award nomination, please keep these criteria with their weights in mind.

The Special Recognition Award is given annually to a number of individuals (membership in the SID is not required) of the scientific and business community for distinguished and valued contribution in the information-display field. These awards are given for contributions in one or more of the following categories: (a) Outstanding Technical Accomplishments, (b) Outstanding Contributions to the Literature, (c) Outstanding Service to the Society, (d) Outstanding Entrepreneurial Accomplishments, and (e) Outstanding Achievements in Education. When evaluating the Special Recognition Award nominations, the H&AC uses a five-level rating scale in each of the above-listed five categories, and these categories have equal weight. Nominators should indicate the category in which a Special Recognition Award nomination is to be considered by the H&AC. More than one category may be indicated. The nomination should, of course, stress accomplishments in the category or categories selected by the nominator.

While an individual nominated for an award or election to Fellow may not submit his/her own nomination, nominators may, if necessary, ask a nominee for information that will be useful in preparing the nomination. The nomination process is relatively simple, but requires that the nominator and perhaps some colleagues devote a little time to preparation of the supporting material that the H&AC needs in order to evaluate each nomination for its merit. It is not necessary to submit a complete publication record with a nomination. Just list the titles of the most significant half a dozen or less papers and patents authored by the nominee, and list the total number of papers and patents he/she has authored.

Determination of the winners for SID honors and awards is a highly selective process. Last year less than 30% of the nominations were selected to receive awards. Some of the major prizes are not awarded every year due to the lack of sufficiently qualified nominees or, in some cases, because no nominations were submitted. On the other hand, once a nomination is submitted, it will stay active for three consecutive years and will be considered three times by the H&AC. The nominator of such a nomination may improve the chances of the nomination by submitting additional material for the second or third year that it is considered, but such changes are not required.

Descriptions of each award and the lists of previous award winners can be found at www.sid.org/awards/indawards.html. Nomination forms are available at www.sid.org/ awards/nomination.html where you will find Nomination Templates in both MS Word (preferred) and Text formats. Please use the links to find the Sample Nominations, which are useful for composing your nomination since these are the actual successful nominations for some previous SID awards. Nominations should preferably be submitted by e-mail. However, you can also submit nominations by ordinary mail if necessary.

Please note that with each Fellow nomination, only five written endorsements by five SID members are required. These brief endorsements – a minimum of 2–3 sentences to a maximum of one-half page in length – must state why clearly and succinctly, in the opinion of the endorser, the nominee deserves to be elected to a Fellow of the Society. Identical endorsements by two or more endorsers will be automatically rejected (no form letters, please). Please send these endorsements to me either by e-mail (preferred) or by hardcopy to the address stated in the accompanying text box. Only the Fellow nominations are required to have these endorsements. However, I encourage you to submit at least a few endorsements for all nominations since they will frequently add further support to your nomination.

All 2010 award nominations are to be submitted by October 9, 2009. E-mail your nominations directly tocnelsonk@comcast.net or sidawards@sid.org. If that is not possible, then please send your hardcopy nomination by regular mail.

As I state each year: "In our professional lives, there are few greater rewards than recognition by our peers. For an individual in the field of displays, an award or prize from the SID, which represents her or his peers worldwide, is a most significant, happy, and satisfying experience. In addition, the overall reputation of the society depends on the individuals who are in its 'Hall of Fame.'

When you nominate someone for an award or prize, you are bringing happiness to an individual and his or her family and friends, and you are also benefiting the society as a whole."

Thank you for your nomination in advance.

– Christopher N. King
SID Honors & Awards Committee

Dr. Akio Okoshi, 83, passed away on May 14, 2009. Dr. Okoshi is known as the inventor of Trinitron technology, which he developed in 1968 in collaboration with Susumu Yoshida and Senri Miyaoka. For those who do not remember, Trinitron aperture-grill technology was a revolutionary innovation that provided Sony with an alternative technology to conventional shadow masks for making color cathode-ray tubes (CRTs). Trinitron CRTs could be made with a cylindrical front face instead of spherical and had continuous R-G-B phosphor stripes in the vertical direction. As a result of this invention, Dr. Okoshi received the Oukouchi Memorial Award from the Japanese TV Association in 1971 and the Purple Medal from the Japanese government in 1973 for the invention of Trinitron technology. Dr. Okoshi also received the The Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize from the Society for Information Display in 1990 for his work on the large-sized outdoor display, the JumboTron.

Dr. Okoshi was born in Kazo City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. He graduated from the Department of Applied Physics at Waseda University at 1949 and joined Sony in 1950. He also received a doctoral degree from Waseda University in 1985. Dr. Okoshis's farewell ceremony took place on June 22 in Tokyo, with more than 250 people in attendance.

For more than 40 years, the David Sarnoff Library has existed within the walls of Sarnoff Corp., a research contractor headquartered in West Windsor, New Jersey. School children, history and technology buffs, and radio and TV fans regularly visit this not-for-profit museum within the corporation's building to view artifacts and files from the early days of broadcasting, displays, and related technologies. Among the unique items in the collection are landmark RCA radios and televisions, the first kinescope and shadow-mask cathode-ray tube, the oldest known electron microscope, early liquid-crystal displays, RCA's first transistors, the first magnetic-core memory, one of the first charge-coupled devices (CCDs) and CMOS microprocessors, and the first thin-film transistor (TFT). The library is also home to boxes of photographs and correspondence from RCA's research, managerial, and public-relations staff.

RCA originally built the David Sarnoff Library to house Sarnoff's papers and memorabilia. It is now a 501(c)(3) that has no corporate relationship with the owner of the RCA trademarks, and only a facility connection with Sarnoff Corporation. It is now time for that connection to end and for the collection to move on. In recent years, Sarnoff Corporation has won an increasing number of U.S. military defense contracts, and the concomitant security requirements do not mesh well with visits from school children on field trips, for example. Dr. Alexander Magoun, the library curator and executive director for the last 11 years, understands this, and in fact expresses gratitude toward the company for housing the museum for as long as it has. "Sarnoff Corporation has been very generous in providing the bulk of our in-kind support," says Magoun, "but like most companies it has to focus on the bottom line." He is, however, concerned about the fate of the thousands of papers, photographs, artifacts, etc., that reflect the life, career, and spirit of the man for whom both corporation and library are named.

David Sarnoff (1891–1971) was a corporate manager and executive (not an engineer or scientist) who became a visionary and champion for broadcast and electronic communications. According to the library's Web site, he "advocated, supported, financed, and oversaw" the development of radio in the first two decades of the last century, and then the development of television from the 1930s to the 1950s. He worked for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America and eventually rose through the ranks of RCA to become president and chairman of the board.

The library is scheduled to move out before the end of the year. What then will be the fate of the Sarnoff collections? Magoun hopes that they will be relocated where they can continue to do the most good. Two facilities are needed: a purpose-built archives professionally staffed to organize, preserve, and make available the two-dimensional historical records of the library; and a professionally staffed museum or other facility to organize, preserve, and exhibit the objects in the museum collection.

"Sarnoff wanted his library to inspire the next generation of high-tech innovators," Magoun says. "My board and I are reviewing proposals from a variety of organizations in state and out to ensure that these milestones in information capture, transmission, and display continue to fulfill his wish and a national need." Magoun says they already have several excellent candidates.

The library welcomes contributions toward underwriting the costs of packing the collections. For more information, visitwww.davidsarnoff.org.

— Jenny Donelan