IEEE Awards Booklet - 2014 - 7

2014 IEEE JOINT AWARD

2014 IEEE MEDALS

IEEE/RSE Wolfson James Clerk
Maxwell Award

IEEE Edison Medal
Sponsored by Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.

Sponsored by Wolfson Microelectronics plc

Sir David Payne

Ralph H. Baer

For ground-breaking contributions to
optical fiber technologies and their
application to optical communications

For pioneering and fundamental contributions to the video-game and interactive
multimedia-content industries

An internationally renowned photonics engineer, David Payne's
innovations have revolutionized high-speed and long-distance optical communications by providing the ability to efficiently transfer
vast amounts of data over large distances. With pioneering fiber
fabrication research spanning 40 years that has impacted practically all of today's optical fiber technology, Dr. Payne's most crucial innovations were the development of the end-pumped fiber
laser and the erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) during the
1980s. Still by far the most successful optical amplifier, the EDFA,
pumped by a tiny diode laser, allows the optical signals carrying
internet data to be periodically boosted within the fiber itself.This
eliminated the need for expensive, capacity-choking, electronic
signal regenerators and allowed today's optical fiber transmission
systems to span oceans without regeneration and with vast bandwidth. Dr. Payne's work made massive deployment of optical fiber networks cost-effective, and the EDFA became a key enabling
technology that led to the explosive growth of the Internet. Dr.
Payne also made ground-breaking contributions to spun fibers for
control of dispersion currently used in undersea fiber cables, the
erbium/ytterbium cladding-pumped fiber amplifier used for cable
television distribution, the distributed fiber temperature sensor
used in oil wells and offshore wind farms, the "bow-tie" polarization-maintaining fiber used in many aircraft/spacecraft navigation
gyroscopes, and the fiber preform analyzer used throughout modern fiber factories. Dr. Payne was also the first to identify the bandwidth advantage of the 1.3-μm wavelength window. Dr. Payne
also conducted research for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency (DARPA) during 2000-2004, which included
ideas for using parallel, beam-combined laser circuits for missile
defense and demonstrated the first kilowatt fiber laser. This technology is now being explored for the next generation of particle
accelerators at CERN. Dr. Payne's current research focuses on
high-power industrial fiber lasers for cutting, welding, and marking as an alternative to conventional lasers.
An IEEE Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK), the Royal Society (UK), and the Russian Academy
of Sciences, Dr. Payne is the director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton, Hampshire, UK.

Known as the "father of video games," Ralph H. Baer's development and commercialization of video-game technology spurred
the creation of a multibillion-dollar industry and has greatly influenced the way we play and work.With a vision of using home
televisions for more than just passively watching broadcasts, Baer's
pioneering work turned televisions into interactive instruments
by creating the concept of home video games and developing
the critical technology to make it a reality. His 1971 patent on a
"television gaming and training apparatus" is the pioneer patent
of video-game technology and was based on his "Brown Box"
console. Enshrined in the Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History, Baer's Brown Box concept became the
Magnavox Odyssey video-game console in 1972 and sold over
200,000 units. From the original ball-and-paddle concept of the
Odyssey to subsequent patents that enable the delivery of content and game-related data via video tape and disc and the use of
digitized faces of famous persons in video games, Baer's innovations have become standard features of current-generation video
games. He was also the first to develop interactive quiz games, a
television shooting game using a light gun, and one of the first
microprocessor-controlled handheld sequence games, which became commercially known as Milton-Bradley's "Simon." Baer
also foresaw the application of his technology for training and
simulation, which has benefitted the military and the airline and
medical industries. Baer's current projects include updates to his
earlier work as well as products involving skateboards, race cars,
programmable interactive books, and electronic training kits.
An IEEE Fellow and member of the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame, Baer's honors include the 2006 U.S. National
Medal of Technology and the 2013 IEEE Region 1 Technological Innovation Award. Baer is currently the owner of R.H. Baer
Consultants, Manchester, N.H.

Scope: For groundbreaking contributions that have had an exceptional impact on the development of electronics and electrical
engineering or related fields

Scope: For a career of meritorious achievement in electrical
science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts

7 | 2014 IEEE AWARDS BOOKLET

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2014