Jim Chen: In Memoriam
Long-time SID member Dr. Hsing-Yao “Jim” Chen passed away on Wednesday, November 1, 2017, in Barrington, Illinois. He was 86 years old.
Chen was born in Fuzhou, China, to the late Dr. K.C. and Tan Chen. He obtained a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1968. During his career, he worked at CBS Labs on a NASA project; at Zenith on flat-panel displays; and at RCA, where he became an expert in electron gun design and received the prestigious David Sarnoff Award. For the last 20 years of his career, he worked for CPT (in Taiwan). He was granted more than 50 patents, primarily pertaining to CRT electron guns, and served as an adjunct university professor in China.
Chen was active in the Society for Information Display for many years, helping to establish chapters in Taipei and Beijing. He was the founding director of the Taipei chapter, serving in that capacity from 1991 to 1993. He was an SID Fellow and lifetime member of both SID and IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), and served on SID’s Honors and Awards Committee from 2002 to 2012, and on SID’s Symposium Program Committee from 1989 until his death in 2017. “Jim believed SID was an important asset to the display community,” says his wife, Sylvia Chen. She adds that he enjoyed working with young engineers and helping them to advance in their fields.
After retiring at 80, Chen remained active with SID and also worked on “passion projects” involving fusion and global warming. He loved traveling the world and spending time with his family and friends.
Jim is survived by Sylvia, his wife of 52 years; daughter Elizabeth Echternach of Lititz, Pennsylvania; son Steven Chen of Nashua, New Hampshire; daughter Deborah Chen-Sloan of Landisville, Pennsylvania; and four grandchildren: Drew Echternach, Erika Echternach, Ethan Chen, and Alex Chen. His two younger sisters, Shouhua Chen de Yearwood and Sue May Chen, live in Taiwan, and his three brothers (Xing-Guang Chen, Lawrence Hsing-Hsia Chen and Hsing-Chang Chen) predeceased him.
Donations in Dr. Chen’s memory may be sent to either: FOMT (Friends of Mariners Trail), Box 2341, Manitowoc, WI 54221-2341; or to JourneyCare Foundation, 2050 Clair Court, Glenview, IL 60025 (www.journeycare.org).
Submit I-Zone Proposals Now
Since its launch six years ago, the Innovation Zone (I-Zone) has become one of the most popular aspects of Display Week. At the 2018 show, SID will once again host live demonstrations of cutting-edge information display and related technologies in the I-Zone. Since the number of I-Zone participants has doubled, from 22 in 2012 to more than 50 in 2017, The 2018 I-Zone will take place in two separate areas in the main exhibit hall (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: The I-Zone is always one of the most popular areas of the exhibit hall.
The I-Zone, which is sponsored by E Ink, provides space to startup companies and others to demonstrate their prototypes or other hardware demo units for three days free of charge on a dedicated area of the show floor at the premier display exhibition in North America. The I-Zone committee encourages participation by small companies, startups, universities, government labs, and independent research labs. Proposals to demonstrate new displays, input technologies, and innovations in related fields such as lighting and organic electronics will be considered. Technologies should be in the pre-product stage or at least have been on the market no earlier than January 2018. Demos that will be shown for the first time in a public forum at I-Zone are especially encouraged.
Submissions are due by March 9, 2018, and should include a 100-word abstract; a one-page summary describing the novelty and potential application; any relevant photographs, videos (no longer than 3 minutes), or diagrams; and a brief logistics plan for the intended demo. For complete instructions, be sure to review the information on the I-Zone web site (http://www.sid.org/About/Awards/I-Zone.aspx) and on the submissions form.
At the show, the I-Zone Committee will select a “Best I-Zone Prototype at Display Week 2018,” to be announced on the show floor during Display Week and in the post-Display Week issue of Information Display magazine. Last year’s winner was IGM University of Stuttgart and HELLA KGaA Hueck & Company’s novel automotive headlamp that incorporates both active-matrix LCD and LED technologies. (See IGM’s article about this technology in this issue.) •