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Lincoln Laboratory Technical Excellence Award
The Technical Excellence Award was initiated by the Director’s Office on the occasion of the Laboratory’s fiftieth anniversary in 2001. The award recognizes exceptional and sustained individual technical excellence resulting in significant impact on a Laboratory mission area.
Past Technical Excellence Award Recipients
2006
Dr. Robert G. Atkins, for his leadership in developing advanced system architectures and his unique ability to develop new architectures for addressing complex, nontraditional problems.
Lawrence M. Candell, for his contribution to developing new optical and radar sensors for communications and surveillance systems.
2005
Dr. John J. Zayhowski, for his sustained technical contributions, both research and engineering, in the area of microchip lasers for advanced sensing applications.
Dr. William S. Song, for his technical excellence in pushing the boundaries of radar systems by developing new components and processes to exploit digital technologies.
2004
Dr. Marilyn M. Wolfson, for her work in the application of meteorology and, in particular, convective weather forecasts to the problem of improving air traffic control at the national level.
Dr. Stephen D. Weiner, for his creative insights, technical depth, and systems perspectives that have yielded significant contributions to the many phases of missile defense development.
2003
Robert A. Bond, for his technical vision and leadership in the application of high performance embedded processing architectures to real-time digital signal processing systems.
Dr. Richard M. Heinrichs, in recognition of his individual contributions and technical leadership in the development and application of experimental laser detection and ranging systems with significant new capabilities.
2002
James E. Evans, for his work with hazardous-weather warning systems for aviation.
Stephan B. Rejto, for his work on Open Systems Architectures for Radar.
2001
Dr. Barry E. Burke, for his work with charge-coupled device imagers.
Dr. James Ward, for his work in adaptive array processing.
2006 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Dr. Robert G. Atkins
For his leadership in developing advanced system architectures and his unique ability to develop new architectures for addressing complex, nontraditional problems.
Dr. Robert G. Atkins is Leader of the Advanced Capabilities and Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He holds SB, SM, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from MIT, awarded in 1987, 1988, and 1993, respectively.
Bob joined Lincoln Laboratory in 1985 as an MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department VI-A Program intern. He continued work with the Laboratory throughout his graduate studies under National Science Foundation and Department of Defense fellowships. Since joining Lincoln Laboratory full time in 1993, Bob has worked on novel solutions and architectures in a wide variety of areas, including electromagnetic modeling, combat identification, surface surveillance, and air defense systems analysis. He became an assistant leader in the Systems Analysis Group in 1999 and an associate leader in the Sensor Exploitation Group in 2000. Bob has led the development of new methods for aircraft and ballistic missile RF signature modeling, new techniques and architectures for air vehicle identification, and systems approaches to homeland defense, automatic target recognition, export control issues, and other areas.
Recently, Bob has focused on the assessment and rapid development of critical new combat capabilities to address shortfalls in the areas of force protection and counter asymmetric warfare. Bob has led Laboratory coalition teams in several rapid-development efforts for novel prototype capabilities. He is the recipient of a 2004–2005 MIT Team Award for one such rapid development. A second rapid-development effort was recently recognized by Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne in a letter of commendation to the Laboratory.
For a number of years, Bob has served at the Laboratory as a member of the New Technology Initiatives Board; he is now serving as a member of the Strategic Core Technology Group at the Laboratory.
Mr. Lawrence M. Candell
For his contribution to developing new optical and radar sensors for communications and surveillance systems.
Mr. Lawrence M. Candell is Leader of the Advanced Space Systems and Concepts Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He holds SB and SM degrees in electrical engineering and an SB degree in management, all from MIT. He specializes in signal processing, electro-optical systems, and optical communications.
Larry started at Lincoln Laboratory in 1986 as an MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department VI-A Program intern. In 1989, he joined the Laboratory full time in the Countermeasures Technology Group, designing jammers, specialized “set-on” receiver systems, and high performance RF direction-of-arrival systems. Two years later, he became involved with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather satellites, performing analysis and design of next-generation geostationary infrared imaging and sounding instruments. In 1996, he became a group leader in the Sensor Technology and Systems Group and was responsible for running the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) program. In 1999, Larry led the formation of the Advanced Space Systems and Concepts Group, which has focused on the design of novel electro-optical systems for surveillance and communications.
Larry has contributed to cutting-edge imaging systems, ranging from gigapixel cameras for persistent surveillance to million-frame-per-second cameras for analyzing missile defense missions. He has developed not only ground-based advanced sensor prototypes, but also sensor prototypes for air, rocket, and space platforms. He was the associate program manager for the Mars Laser Communications Demonstration, responsible for the development of a distributed aperture receiving system that could successfully decode with efficiencies of nearly 3 bits/photon.
In addition, Larry has served as a member and co-chair of the New Technology Initiatives Board and the Strategic Core Technology Group. He has also been involved with management effectiveness at the Laboratory, serving as the chair of the Group Leader Management Effectiveness Committee and helping to organize the Group Leader Offsite programs.
2005 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Dr. John J. Zayhowski
For his sustained technical contributions, both research and engineering, in the area of microchip lasers for advanced sensing applications.
Dr. John J. Zayhowski is a senior staff member in the Quantum Electronics Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He received a joint MS and BS in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT. In 1986, he completed his PhD in electrical engineering at MIT as a Hertz Fellow. John has worked on semiconductor devices, solid-state lasers, nonlinear optics, and electro-optic systems. His current focus is on the development of robust miniature solid-state laser systems. His work has resulted in 16 U.S. patents and the formation of four companies.
John is a corecipient of a 1998 R&D 100 Award for the CyraxTM portable laser mapping and imaging system. He is a winner of two MIT Team Awards (2001/02 for the Biological Aerosol Warning Sensor and 2002/03 for 3D ladar). In 2004, he received a Certificate of Appreciation recognizing exceptional service to the Joint Program Manager NBC Contamination Avoidance and Joint Program Manager for Biological Detection.
John has published extensively on microchip and miniature lasers. At Lincoln Laboratory, he was a member of the Advanced Concepts Committee, serving as Chairman in 1999/2000, and of the New Technology Initiatives Board. Currently, he is Program Chair for the 2006 Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics and the Optics Letters’ topical editor for lasers.
Dr. William S. Song
For his technical excellence in pushing the boundaries of radar systems by developing new components and processes to exploit digital technologies.
Dr. William S. Song is a senior staff member in the Embedded Digital Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982, 1984, and 1989, respectively.
Since his arrival at Lincoln Laboratory in 1990, Bill has been working on high-performance sensor systems and VLSI signal processor technologies for adaptive sensor array applications. He has developed numerous advanced signal processing algorithms, architectures, real-time embedded processors, and sensor array systems. Recently, he has been working on the nonlinear equalization processor, mixed-signal system on chip, high-throughput low-power VLSI signal processors, and highly digitized wideband sensor arrays.
Bill has been the technical director for a number of programs, including the receiver-on-chip, wideband linearity enhancement processor, X-band element-level digitized sensor array, space-based radar onboard signal processor, high-dynamic-range digital receiver, adaptive digital beamformer processor, and miniaturized mixed-signal receiver/processor programs. He has also designed a series of high-performance special-purpose signal processor ICs for these applications. His accomplishments include 6 U.S. patents, 17 invention disclosures, and 18 publications. He is also an IEEE Senior Member.
2004 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Dr. Stephen D. Weiner
For his creative insights, technical depth, and systems perspectives that have yielded significant contributions to the many phases of missile defense development.
Stephen D. Weiner is a senior staff member in the Systems and Analysis Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He received the SB and PhD degrees in physics from MIT in 1961 and 1965. Since then he has worked at Lincoln Laboratory in many areas of research in ballistic missile defense. These areas include system and sensor design, sensor tracking and discrimination measurements, and interceptor guidance. He has also written several book chapters on the history and technology of ballistic missile defense. He has participated in a number of national studies of ballistic and cruise missile defense. For a time he held the world record for the viewgraph with the greatest number of overlays.
Dr. Marilyn M. Wolfson
For her work in the application of meteorology and, in particular, convective weather forecasts to the problem of improving air traffic control at the national level.
Dr. Marilyn M. Wolfson holds the BS (honors) in atmospheric and oceanic science from the University of Michigan and the SM from MIT, where she was named an Ida M. Green Fellow. She began work at Lincoln Laboratory in 1983 and later returned to MIT as a Lincoln Staff Associate, graduating with the PhD in 1990.
Marilyn began development of automated short-term convective weather forecasts for air traffic management applications in 1996, as leader of the FAA Aviation Weather Research Program’s Convective Weather Product Development Team. She has patented and licensed the technology needed to make accurate 1- to 2-hour forecasts and has recently transferred this technology for operational FAA use. She served as senior staff for two years and is now assistant leader of the Weather Sensing Group, directing their weather research efforts. Marilyn has received the American Meteorological Society Editor’s Award for her work on the Monthly Weather Review journal. She has been named Chairman of the Society’s Aviation Weather Conference for 2006.
2003 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Dr. Richard M. Heinrichs
In recognition of his individual contributions and technical leadership in the development and application of experimental laser detection and ranging systems with significant new capabilities.
Richard Heinrichs holds BS degrees in physics and electrical engineering from MIT, an MS in electrical engineering from MIT and a PhD in physics from the University of Massachusetts. His doctoral thesis concerned the investigation of superfluidity in 3He-4He mixture films. After obtaining his Ph.D., he performed post-doctoral work at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in the area of nonlinear fluid dynamics.
After his post-doctoral work, Richard joined the Technical Staff of Lincoln Laboratory in 1986. Richard presently leads the Laser and Sensor Applications Group at Lincoln Laboratory. His Group has programs aimed towards the development of direct-detection 3D laser radars and high-resolution coherent laser radars, as well as the integration of advanced radar techniques to the optical regime. He was Chairman of the Coherent Laser Radar Conference in Bar Harbor, Maine, in 2003.
Mr. Robert A. Bond
For his technical vision and leadership in the application of high performance embedded processing architectures to real-time digital signal processing systems.
Mr. Robert A. Bond was born in Quebec, Canada in 1955. He has a BS (honors) in physics from Queen’s University, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Bond has worked in the area of embedded processors and signal-processing technology for over twenty-five years. He joined MIT Lincoln Laboratory in 1987 and is currently Leader of the Embedded Digital Systems Group.
At Lincoln Laboratory, Mr. Bond has led the development of several notable signal-processing systems and has pioneered the use of portable middleware libraries and software engineering methods. He was responsible for the development of the Mountaintop RSTER radar software architecture and was coordinator for the radar-system integration and verification. He was involved in early studies to evaluate the use of massively parallel processors (MPP) for real-time signal-processing. In the late '90s, he managed the development of an 85 Gflop/sec, 1000-processor MPP for performing radar space-time adaptive processing (STAP).
In the last five years, Mr. Bond has directed research and development in advanced software techniques for embedded signal- and image-processing systems. During this time, he oversaw the development of the parallel vector library (PVL), a prototype middleware library for portable, scalable, embedded signal-processing. Mr. Bond is the co-chair of the High-Performance Embedded Computing (HPEC) Software Initiative (HPEC-SI) Applied Research working group. His current research interests include advanced signal-processing middleware, rapid prototyping methodologies, cluster computing, software optimization techniques, and parallel/distributed algorithms and architectures.
Prior to joining Lincoln Laboratory, Mr. Bond worked at Unisys Corporation on radar and sonar simulation for Naval command and control systems. He started his career in embedded processing at CAE electronics, where he worked on radar, navigation, and Kalman filter systems for flight simulators.
2002 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Mr. Stephan B. Rejto
For his technical innovation and leadership in the development of the Radar Open Systems Architecture providing common back-end hardware and software components for the Kwajalein and Millstone Hill radar systems.
Dr. James E. Evans
For his internationally recognized technical leadership in the development of windshear warning systems and integrated weather systems for aviation.
2001 Technical Excellence Award Recipients
Dr. Barry E. Burke
In recognition of exceptional and sustained contributions in the field of charge-coupled device imagers, resulting in significant new ground- and space-based systems for surveillance and astronomy.
Dr. James Ward
For his internationally recognized technical leadership in the development and application of adaptive array processing techniques in radar and sonar systems.
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