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-ray 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 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 AU Optronics Corp., Sharp Corporation, and Samsung Mobile Display, 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 thatwill 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 nomina-tion is submitted, it will stay active for three con-secutive 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 2012 award nominations are to be submitted by October 7, 2011. E-mail your nominations directly to fan.luo@auo.com orsidawards@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 his or her 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.

— Fan Luo
Chair, SID Honors & Awards Committee

The international event known as Display Week took place in Los Angeles last May, but a great deal of SID activity goes on year-round in the City of Angels. In fact, the LA Chapter of the Society for Information Display recently received a presidential citation from SID for being the most active chapter in the Americas region in 2010. "The LA Chapter is an outstanding example," says Society for Information Display President Munisamy Anandan, citing chapter officers' ongoing interest in SID and their dedicated service to members. Anandan notes the importance of local chapter activities with regard to the health of the overall organization: "The progress of SID is in their hands."

At Display Week 2011, the LA Chapter hosted a "Meet and Greet" table during the author-interview sessions on all three days of the symposium. The Meet and Greet gave current and prospective SID LA chapter members a chance to say hello and to offer recommendations on topics to be covered at future meetings, including the chapter's one-day technical symposium held each February. The top vote getter with regard to topics, according to LA Chapter chairman Phillip Joujon-Roche, was Emerging Display Technologies, followed by Flexible Displays, OLEDs, and 3-D in a three-way tie for second place, followed by LCDs, LEDs, Smart TV, and Backlights. "The SID LA board decided on Emerging Display Technologies as the topic for our one-day symposium in Februrary," says Joujon-Roche.

At the end of June, the chapter hosted a program that included an overview of quantum-dot technology and a review of the recent symposium. Featured speakers were chapter director Larry Tannas, who announced the awards; Ken Werner, Principal of Nutmeg Consultants and Senior Analyst for Insight Media, who presented the quantum-dot technology information via remote feed from Connecticut; Larry Iboshi, who discussed highlights from the symposium, including small devices and the Pentile HiRes Display; and Phil Joujon-Roche, who offered a look at 3-D LC-TV advances from Sharp.

The upcoming one-day symposium will be held on February 3, 2012, at the Costa Mesa Country Club. Ken Werner will be the program chairman.

For more information on the activities of the SID LA Chapter or to become a member, visit www.sidla.org. •