Seeking Nominations for 2019 SID Honors and Awards
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 Society for Information Display, 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.
On behalf of the Society for Information Display’s Honors and Awards Committee, I invite you to participate in the nomination of deserving individuals for next year’s honors and awards. The SID Board of Directors grants awards based on recommendations made by the Honors and Awards Committee. Recipients do not necessarily have to be members of SID. Seven major prizes are awarded to individuals based on their outstanding achievements. The seven major prizes are as follows:
The Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize is awarded for “outstanding technical achievement in, or contribution to, display technology.” This prize is named in honor of the German physicist and Nobel laureate Karl Ferdinand Braun, who invented the cathode-ray tube (CRT) in 1897. 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, named for the Polish computer pioneer, is specifically dedicated to individuals who have made major contributions to flat-panel-display technology or, through their research activities, have advanced the state of understanding of flat-panel technology.
The David Sarnoff Industrial Achievement Prize is designed to honor “outstanding recipients who have had a profound, positive effect on the display industry over a period of many years, and are broadly recognized across the industry.” The Sarnoff Prize was created last year in honor of RCA visionary David Sarnoff to honor individuals whose contributions to the display industry may be outside the technical realm.
The Otto Schade Prize, which honors pioneering RCA engineer Otto Schade, is awarded for >“outstanding scientific or technical achievement in the advancement of functional performance and/or image quality of information displays.” The advancement for this prize may be achieved in any display technology or display system or can be of a more general or theoretical nature. The scope of eligibility encompasses the areas of display systems, display electronics, applied vision and display human factors, image processing, and display metrology, and work may take the form of theoretical or mathematical models, algorithms, software, hardware, or innovative methods of display-performance measurement and image-quality characterization.
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 honors Professor H. Gene Slottow of the University of Illinois, an inventor of the plasma display, and Professor Kenichi Owaki of the Hiroshima Institute of Technology, an early leader of the pioneering Fujitsu Plasma Display program. This prize recognizes outstanding educational and training contributions made not only by professors in formal universities but also by researchers. It may also include training given by researchers, engineers, and managers in industry who have done an outstanding job developing information-display professionals.
The Peter Brody Prize is awarded to honor “outstanding contributions of young researchers (under age 40) who have made major-impact technical contributions to the developments of active-matrix-addressed displays” in one or more of the following areas: thin-film transistor devices; active-matrix-addressing techniques; active-matrix device manufacturing; active-matrix display media; and active-matrix display-enabling components.
Each of the above-mentioned prizes carries a $2,000 stipend.
The seventh 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 SID’s goals.
Fellow Nominations
The membership grade of SID Fellow is one of unusual professional distinction. Each year the SID Board of Directors elects a limited number (up to 0.1 percent 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 for at least five years at the time of nomination, with the last three 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 contributions to knowledge in their area(s) of expertise. For this reason, endorsements from five SID members are required to accompany each Fellow nomination. The committee evaluates nominations on five weighted criteria: creativity and patents, 30 percent; technical accomplishments and publications, 30 percent; technical leadership, 20 percent; service to SID, 15 percent; and other accomplishments, 5 percent. When submitting a Fellow award nomination, please keep these criteria and their weights in mind.
Special Recognition Awards
The Special Recognition Award is given annually to a number of individuals (membership in the SID is not required) in the scientific and business community for distinguished and valued contributions 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 nominations for the Special Recognition Award, the committee uses a five-level rating scale in each of the five categories listed above, and the categories have equal weight. Nominators should indicate the category in which a Special Recognition Award nomination is to be considered by the committee. More than one category may be indicated. The nomination should emphasize the candidate’s accomplishments in the category or categories selected by the nominator.
How the Nomination Process Works
While individuals may not nominate themselves for an award or election to Fellow, 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 a few colleagues spend some time preparing the supporting material that the committee needs in order to evaluate each nomination. It is not necessary to submit a complete publication record with a nomination. Just list the titles of the most significant half-dozen or fewer papers and patents authored by the nominee, and list the total number of papers and patents he/she has authored.
Determining winners for SID honors and awards is a highly selective process. On average, fewer than 30 percent of nominees receive awards. In some years, some major prizes are not awarded due to a lack of sufficiently qualified nominees. On the other hand, nominations remain active for three consecutive years and will be considered three times by the committee. For more information about the awards or to download a nomination form, go to www.sid.org/About/Awards/IndividualHonorsandAwards.aspx. The site also provides samples of previous successful nominations to guide the composition of your nomination. We prefer to receive submissions by email, but if necessary you may mail your submission to SID headquarters.
Please note that each Fellow nomination requires written endorsements from five SID members. Identical endorsements by two or more endorsers will be automatically rejected (no form letters, please). Only the Fellow nominations are required to have endorsements, but I encourage you to submit at least a few endorsements for all nominations.
All 2019 award nominations, including support letters, must be submitted by October 15, 2018. Email your nominations directly to swu@ucf.edu with cc to office@sid.org.
Thank you in advance for your nomination.
— Shin-Tson Wu Chair, SID Honors and Awards Committee
SID Honors and Awards Nominations