IEEE Awards Booklet - 2018 - 26

2018 ieee technical field awards

IEEE Marie Sklodowska-Curie Award

IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award

Sponsored by the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society

Sponsored by the IEEE Standards Association

David Nygren

Craig M. Wellman

For pioneering radiation detector developments, enabling major discoveries in
diverse areas of science

For leadership in developing and promoting standards that enable arc hazard
assessment and injury-risk mitigation

David Nygren's powerful particle-detection instruments are enabling breakthrough discoveries in physics and have improved
practical applications such as medical imaging. Nygren developed
the time projection chamber (TPC) to identify and track charged
particles in complex high-energy collisions. Incorporating an intrinsically three-dimensional capability, the TPC has been implemented in particle colliders at major national research laboratories,
has provided evidence of the gluon plasma state, and is playing a
key role in searching for weakly interacting massive particles, in
learning more about the elusive neutrino, and for many other applications. His proposal for fully depleted charge-coupled device
imagers for optical astronomy are enabling a deeper view into
space. Nygren's quantum-counting mammography system enables
improved image quality while greatly reducing radiation exposure.
An IEEE Member, Nygren is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington,Arlington,
TX, USA.

A champion of improving electrical safety in the workplace, Craig M.
Wellman's founding and chairing of the working group that developed the IEEE 1584-2002 standard for performing arc flash hazard
calculations has reduced injuries and saved lives.This groundbreaking
standard provides a method to predict the severity of arc flashes so
that workers can wear appropriate arc-rated clothing or revise protective devices to reduce the hazards. Wellman volunteered to lead the
47-person working group through the process of reviewing available
data, defining a test program, soliciting funds, conducting testing, analyzing data, developing a model, writing the standard, and working
through the ballot process. Remarkably completed within two years,
the standard has impacted the design of power system equipment, safe
work practices, personal protective equipment, and worker training.
An IEEE Life Fellow, Wellman was employed by DuPont for
thirty years and then worked as an independent consultant. He
resides in Newark, DE, USA.

IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award

IEEE Nikola Tesla Award

Sponsored by Nokia Bell Labs

Sponsored by Wolong Electric Group, the IEEE Industry Applications
Society, and the IEEE Power & Energy Society

Peter W. Shor

Longya Xu

For contributions to quantum communication and information theory

For contributions to design and control of efficient electric machines for
wind power generation and electrified
vehicles

Peter W. Shor's dramatic breakthroughs have fueled the modern
quantum information revolution and ignited a global race to build
the world's first practical quantum computer. Shor's 1994 integer
factoring algorithm demonstrated that quantum computers could
solve concrete and highly sensitive problems much faster than silicon computers. His algorithm also showed that encryption codes
could be broken, which has had great implications for the security of
classical communication systems. Shor proved skeptics of quantum
communication wrong by pioneering the development of quantum
error-correction codes to protect quantum states against decoherence and noise. His quantum accuracy threshold theorem provides
confidence in the potential for constructing large-scale quantum
computers since it guarantees that quantum computation is possible
despite imperfections, provided the noise level is suﬃciently low.
Shor is currently the Morss Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA,
USA.

Longya Xu's high-eﬃciency and high-reliability electric machine
design and control techniques are driving advances in electric
vehicles and in harnessing wind power. His development and
enhancement of the first doubly fed brushless machine led to a
sensorless and brushless wind-power generation system with high
reliability compared to conventional motor and generator systems.
He designed a brushless wind turbine generator that allows flexible AC or DC connection to power grids. Xu also developed
the dual-mechanical-port (DMP) machine concept, which allows multiple mechanical subsystems to eﬀectively interact with
electrical subsystems for optimal performance and flexible powerflow control within a single electric machine frame. A major contribution to meeting the needs of high-eﬃciency electric vehicles,
his DMP system was successfully installed on a 2.8-ton SUV capable of driving 125 km/hour at grades up to 30%.
An IEEE Fellow, Xu is a professor at The Ohio State University,
Columbus, OH, USA.

26 | 2018 IEEE awards bookLET

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2018