International Society of Automation announces recipients of 2018 author awards

Summary

October 2, 2018 — The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced the recipients of its 2018 author awards presented annually by ISA’s Publications Department.

“Each year, ISA is proud to recognize and thank all of the talented authors and contributors who help develop, review and deliver outstanding ISA publications and technical resources to automation and control professionals throughout the world,” says Rick Zabel, who as ISA Group Publisher manages all of ISA's publishing resources.

Winners are recognized for their editorial contributions to a wide range of ISA publications, including ISA books; InTech, ISA’s bi-monthly magazine for automation and control professionals; and ISA Transactions, ISA’s monthly professional journal dedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation.

Winners will be honored at a 14 October 2018 awards ceremony held during ISA’s 2018 Annual Leadership Conference in Montreal, Canada.

Awards and award recipients

The Raymond D. Molloy Award

The Raymond D. Molloy Award is presented annually in honor of Raymond D. Molloy’s contributions to the automation profession. Molloy was dedicated to the ISA publications program for more than 20 years, maintaining a keen interest in developing high-quality publications that met the needs of measurement and control professionals.

This year’s award recipient is William (Bill) L. Mostia, Jr., for his book, Troubleshooting: A Technician's Guide, Second Edition, which outsold all other ISA books published in 2017.

Mostia possesses more than 45 years of experience in the process industries, primarily at petrochemical companies. Selected an ISA Fellow in 2013, he has published more than 100 articles and papers on instrumentation subjects.

The Keith Otto Award

This award is presented by the ISA Publications Department in honor of Keith Otto, a member who served the Society for many years, particularly as the chair of the InTech Editorial Advisory Board. The Keith Otto Award recognizes the author(s) of the best article in InTech.

This year’s winners are Peter Fuhr, Ph.D., and Sterling Rooke, Ph.D., for their article titled, “Is it time for a change in cybersecurity?,” which was published in the November/December 2017 issue.

Dr. Fuhr has been involved in industrial wireless, sensors, and secure systems as a NASA space optical physicist, university professor, serial entrepreneur, and a US National Laboratory researcher.

Dr. Sterling serves as a Cyber Operations Officer within the US Air Force Reserve, supporting USCYBERCOM and Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx). He is also Director of ISA’s Communications Division.

The Nels Tyring Award

The Nels Tyring Award recognizes the author or authors of the best published article in one of the Society’s journals. The award category was established in honor of Nels Tyring, an ISA member who served the Society for many years, particularly as the Chair of the Journals Editorial Advisory and Oversight Committee.

The recipient of this year’s Nels Tyring Award is Dean Ford, CAP^®, for his Special Section article, “We have a demand problem with the automation profession,” published in the September/October 2017 issue of InTech.

Ford, an active senior member of ISA, participates in many ISA standards committees and serves on the Automation Federation’s Government Relations and Workforce Development committees.

ISA Transactions Best Paper Award

ISA Transactions Best Paper Award recognizes the best technical paper published in ISA Transactions, the ISA professional journal dedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation, during the previous year.

By showcasing advances that bridge the theory and practice gap, ISA Transactions plays an important role in enhancing the visibility and reputation of automation and control professionals.

The recipients of the ISA Transactions Best Paper Award are Julian Barreiro-Gomez, Ph.D.; Carlos Ocampo-Martinez, Ph.D.; and Nicanor Quijano, Ph.D.; for their paper titled, “Dynamical tuning for MPC using population games: A water supply network application,” published in ISA Transactions, Vol. 69, pages 175-186, July 2017

Dr. Barreiro-Gomez is a Post-Doctoral Associate in the Learning & Game Theory Laboratory at the New York University in Abu Dhabi (NYUAD), United Arab Emirates. His primary research interests are evolutionary game dynamics, mean-field-type games, and distributed control and optimization.

Dr. Ocampo-Martinez is Associate Professor of Automatic Control and Model Predictive Control within the Automatic Control Department of the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC). His primary research interests include constrained model predictive control, large-scale systems management, and industrial applications.

Dr. Quijano is a Full Professor at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. His primary research interest focuses on hierarchical and distributed optimization methods using bio-inspired and game-theoretical techniques for dynamic resource allocation problems, especially those in energy, water, agriculture, and transportation.

About ISA The International Society of Automation is a nonprofit professional association that sets the standard for those who apply engineering and technology to improve the management, safety, and cybersecurity of modern automation and control systems used across industry and critical infrastructure. Founded in 1945, ISA develops widely used global standards; certifies industry professionals; provides education and training; publishes books and technical articles; hosts conferences and exhibits; and provides networking and career development programs for its 40,000 members and 400,000 customers around the world. 

ISA owns Automation.com, a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation, an association of non-profit organizations serving as “The Voice of Automation.” Through a wholly owned subsidiary, ISA bridges the gap between standards and their implementation with the ISA Security Compliance Institute and the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute