IEEE Awards Booklet - 2009 - 16

I E E E

T E C H N I C A L

F I E L D

AWA R D S

2009 IEEE
Koji Kobayashi Computers and
Communications Award

2009 IEEE
William E. Newell Power
Electronics Award

Sponsored by NEC Corporation

Sponsored by IEEE Power Electronics Society

Nick McKeown

Tadashi Fukao

For pioneering contributions to the theory and practice
of input-queued switches, their scheduling algorithms
and router buffers

For contributions to the development of
cycloconverters and bearingless drives

Considered the dominant contributor to both the theory and practice
of switching technology, Nick McKeown's work influenced modern
router design, overcoming existing bottlenecks and enabling the
phenomenal growth of the Internet during the 1990s. His Bay Bridge
router in 1992 was the first example of line-rate processing of data
packets by a programmable processor and was considered the
world's fastest router. His work on input-queued switches with virtual
output queues in 1995 revolutionized how routers were built and
enabled a ten-fold increase in capacity compared to previous routers,
becoming the basis for Cisco Systems' GSR router, which made up
75% of the backbone of the Internet. Dr. McKeown also determined
that packet buffers could be made much smaller and developed a
new caching system for the routers that allowed the use of less-expensive DRAM chips for "network memory," saving the industry
hundreds of millions of dollars. An IEEE Fellow, Dr. McKeown is
currently an associate professor of electrical engineering and
computer science at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California.

One of the most significant contributions that Tadashi Fukao has
made in the power industry is on "Super High Speed Electric Drives
and Bearingless Drives." The impact of Tadashi Fukao's work on
high-speed drives can be seen in today's acceptance of high rotational speed drives used in hybrid vehicles, mobile power generators
and vacuum cleaners. He studied high-frequency cycloconverters,
which convert 50-Hz commercial energy into 400- or 500-Hz electrical power, and proposed generator and distribution systems with
reduced physical dimensions. Dr. Fukao researched bearingless
motors to overcome the problems that occur when motors with
bearings operate at super high speeds. Bearingless motors allow
alternating current motor drives to be used in space applications,
harsh environments, food and pharmacy processes and very highand low-atmosphere environments where bearing maintenance and
use of lubrication oil would present problems. An IEEE Fellow, Dr.
Fukao is currently an independent consultant to the Tokyo University
of Science and professor emeritus at Tokyo Institute of Technology.

2009 IEEE
Daniel E. Noble Award

2009 IEEE
Frederik Philips Award

Sponsored by Philips Electronics NV

Larry F. Weber

Shojiro Asai

For pioneering contributions to plasma display
technology and its commercialization

For leadership in research and development in electron
device technologies and their applications

With expertise that spans from fundamental research to practical
product development, Dr. Weber's career has been devoted to the
advancement of plasma display panel technology. Dr. Weber developed
the energy recovery sustain circuit, which reduces dissipated power of
a plasma display panel by hundreds of watts, cutting power consumption in half. His ramp set-up waveform overcame the problem inherent
in many display technologies of obtaining very dark regions of an
image. Dr. Weber transitioned from university researcher to business
leader in 1987 when he founded Plasmaco and acquired what was then
the world's largest facility for manufacturing plasma displays. Panasonic
later acquired Plasmaco as a wholly owned subsidiary, and Dr. Weber
helped Panasonic develop its first commercial plasma television
products in 1997. Dr. Weber was the first to demonstrate a high-quality
60-inch high-definition television image in 1999, ushering in today's
large-screen flat-panel market. An IEEE Fellow, Dr. Weber has been
recognized with numerous awards for his work in plasma displays. He is
currently retired but holds 15 patents on plasma displays.

Shojiro Asai's contributions in electron device technologies helped
position Hitachi Ltd. as a leader in the semiconductor field and
benefited the industry as a whole. Dr. Asai was a leader in the development of sub-micon MOS devices. The 2-D numerical simulator
for carrier transport his team built for this purpose was a world
benchmark during the 1970s. He was instrumental in the development of electron beam mask making and direct writing, now
indispensible tools for semiconductor manufacturing. He also led
the efforts in dynamic random access memories with 3-D memory
cells and microcontrollers with embedded nonvolatile memories
and digital signal processor capabilities. These are now key components in computers, cell phones and personal navigators. Dr.
Asai was a key leader in developing low-cost, tamper-resistant
radio frequency identification (RF-ID) technology. It provides the
ability to trace industrial and commercial goods throughout the
entire product lifecycle. An IEEE Life Fellow, Dr. Asai is currently
executive vice president of Rigaku Corporation, Tokyo, Japan.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Awards Booklet - 2009