Distinguished Technical Achievement Award Recipients
The Distinguished Technical Achievement Award is given to honor an outstanding technical contribution to oceanic engineering in either the fundamental or applied areas. The recipient need not be a member of the Oceanic Engineering Society or the IEEE. The award recognizes either a single major invention or scientific contribution or a distinguished series of contributions over a long period of time.
Request for Nominations for The Distinguished Technical Achievement Award 2019
The IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society is hereby soliciting nominations for the society Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for significant accomplishments in oceanic engineering. Download the nomination form here. Nominations should be forwarded to the Awards Chair, Dr. René Garello at r.garello@ieee.org. The deadline for nominations is 1 July 2019.
Dr. René Garello, Chair
IEEE/OES Nominations and Appointments Committee
r.garello@ieee.org
2018 Distinguished Technical Achievement Award
Martin Klein is presented the DTA award for the design and development of the first commercial dual-channel side scan sonar and contributions to new techniques in ocean exploration.
Mr. Martin Klein is Founder and former President of Klein Associates, Inc., now Klein Marine Systems. A Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) graduate (Class of 1962), Mr. Klein was Program Manager for Sonar Systems at E.G.&G. International (1962—1967) where he developed the first commercial dual-channel side scan sonar, establishing a lineage of seabed mapping systems that continues to evolve and to be used to this day. In 1968 he founded Klein Associates, Inc., where he improved and diversified the product, distributed the first dual-frequency system, and developed the first combined side scan and sub-bottom profiling sonar. These systems have seen worldwide use in surveys for the offshore commercial sector, for resource management, maritime archeology, as well as for military applications. The Klein Side Scan Sonar was one of the iconic objects selected for the MIT150 Exhibition, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the founding of MIT.
Klein’s sonars have been used to help find numerous shipwrecks that include the Titanic, the Lusitania, the Edinburgh, the Hamilton and Scourge, the Lake George Radeau (oldest warship in the U.S.), and the HMS Erebus. In the 1960s Mr. Klein helped design, install and operate the first deep side scan sonar, and up-down and navigation sonar for the Bathyscaph Trieste during the search for the lost submarine USS Thresher. In the 1970s Mr. Klein worked with the Academy of Applied Science and the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau using his side scan sonar instruments to show the existence of caves in the steep walls of the Loch, locate cultural artifacts, and assess the fauna of that storied body of water. He participated in dives of several research submersibles, including a 5000- foot dive in the ALVIN with a team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in which he made the first sub-bottom profile from a deep submersible.
Mr. Klein is the author of numerous patents and publications. He is a Life Member of the IEEE, a fellow of the Explorers Club, and a fellow and former Director of Budget and Finance for the Marine Technology Society. Mr. Klein was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, is recipient of the Order of Excellence Award from the Alliance for Maritime Heritage Conservation and the Compass Distinguished Achievement Award sponsored by Sea Technology Magazine, and in 2018 received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oceanology International Conference in London. Currently Mr. Klein serves on the Advisory Board of the MIT Sea Grant Program and the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, and serves as a judge and mentor for the Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) ROV Competition.
Past Recipients of the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award
| 2017 | Peter N. Mikhalevsky |
| 2016 | John E. Ehrenberg |
| 2015 | Milica Stojanovic |
| 2014 | Christian de Moustier |
| 2013 | Gwyn Griffiths |
| 2012 | Joseph Vadus |
| 2011 | Christopher von Alt |
| 2010 | Tamaki Ura |
| 2009 | Robert T. Bannon |
| 2008 | Thomas B. Sanford |
| 2007 | Donald E. Barrick |
| 2006 | Fred Noel Spiess |
| 2005 | Douglas C. Webb |
| 2004 | John P. Craven |
| 2003 | Georges Bienvenu |
| 2002 | James Candy |
| 2001 | Werner R. Alpers |
| 2000 | Albert J. Williams 3rd |
| 1999 | William M. Carey |
| 1998 | Burton G. Hurdle |
| 1997 | Newell Booth |
| 1996 | Frederick H. Fisher |
| 1995 | Mack O’Brien |
| 1994 | Edmund J. Sullivan |
| 1993 | William J. Plant |
| 1992 | Arthur B. Baggeroer |
| 1991 | Henry Cox |
| 1990 | Robert C. Spindel |
| 1989 | Victor C. Anderson |
| 1988 | Chester M. McKinney |
| 1987 | James R. McFarlane |
| 1986 | Robert J. Urick |
| 1985 | William N. Nierenberg |
| 1984 | John B. Hersey |
| 1983 | Alan Berman |
| 1982 | Ira Dyer |
| 1981 | No Award |
| 1980 | Neil Brown |
| 1979 | David W. Hyde |
| 1978 | Richard K. Moore |
| 1977 | Howard A. Wilcox |
| 1976 | Werner Kroebel |
| 1975 | Robert A. Frosh |
Dr. Paul C. Hines was born and raised in Glace Bay, Cape Breton. From 1977-1981 he attended Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, graduating with a B.Sc. (Hon) in Engineering-Physics.
Dr. Albert J. Williams 3rd (Sandy) received his AB in Physics from Swarthmore College in 1962 and his Ph.D. in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1969. He spent his entire career at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, becoming Scientist Emeritus in 2002. A Fellow of IEEE, he received the Distinguished Technical Achievement Award of the IEEE/Oceanic Engineering Society in 2000 and is presently VP Technical Activities for OES. His research interests are microstructure and mixing, flow measurements, oceanographic instrumentation and measurements, sediment transport, and turbulent boundary layers. He designs and manufactures acoustic travel-time current meters for measurement of current, waves, and turbulence.
Milica Stojanovic graduated from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1988, and received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University in Boston, in 1991 and 1993. She was a Principal Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in 2008 joined Northeastern University, where she is currently a Professor of electrical and computer engineering. She is also a Guest Investigator at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Milica’s research interests include digital communications theory, statistical signal processing and wireless networks, and their applications to underwater acoustic systems. She has made pioneering contributions to underwater acoustic communications, and her work has been widely cited. She is a Fellow of the IEEE, and serves as an Associate Editor for its Journal of Oceanic Engineering (and in the past for Transactions on Signal Processing and Transactions on Vehicular Technology). She also serves on the Advisory Board of the IEEE Communication Letters, and chairs the IEEE Ocean Engineering Society’s Technical Committee for Underwater Communication, Navigation and Positioning. Milica is the recipient of the 2015 IEEE/OES Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Hanu Singh graduated B.S. ECE and Computer Science (1989) from George Mason University and Ph.D. (1995) from MIT/Woods Hole.He led the development and commercialization of the Seabed AUV, nine of which are in operation at other universities and government laboratories around the world. He was technical lead for development and operations for Polar AUVs (Jaguar and Puma) and towed vehicles(Camper and Seasled), and the development and commercialization of the Jetyak ASVs, 18 of which are currently in use. He was involved in the development of UAS for polar and oceanographic applications, and high resolution multi-sensor acoustic and optical mapping with underwater vehicles on over 55 oceanographic cruises in support of physical oceanography, marine archaeology, biology, fisheries, coral reef studies, geology and geophysics and sea-ice studies. He is an accomplished Research Student advisor and has made strong collaborations across the US (including at MIT, SIO, Stanford, Columbia LDEO) and internationally including in the UK, Australia, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, India, Sweden and Norway. Hanu Singh is currently Chair of the IEEE Ocean Engineering Technology Committee on Autonomous Marine Systems with responsibilities that include organizing the biennial IEEE AUV Conference, 2008 onwards. Associate Editor, IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering, 2007-2011. Associate editor, Journal of Field Robotics 2012 onwards.
Dr. Marcia Isakson received a B.S. with a double major in engineering physics and mathematics from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1992. Upon graduation, she was awarded the Hertz Foundation Fellowship for the study of atomic and molecular physics. She earned her M.A. in atomic and molecular physics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1994. From 1994 to 1997, Isakson served as an officer in the United States Army at Fort Hood, Texas. In 1997, CPT Isakson was honorably discharged. In 2002, she earned a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin. In the summer of 2001, she began work on acoustics at Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin.
Professor Mal Heron is Adjunct Professor in the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and is CEO of Portmap Remote Ocean Sensing Pty Ltd. His PhD work in Auckland, New Zealand, was on radio-wave probing of the ionosphere, and that is reflected in his early ionospheric papers. He changed research fields to the scattering of HF radio waves from the ocean surface during the 1980s. Through the 1990s his research has broadened into oceanographic phenomena which can be studied by remote sensing, including HF radar and salinity mapping from airborne microwave radiometers . Throughout, there have been one-off papers where he has been involved in solving a problem in a cognate area like medical physics, and paleobiogeography. Occasionally, he has diverted into side-tracks like a burst of papers on the effect of bushfires on radio communications. His present project of the Australian Coastal Ocean Radar Network (ACORN) is about the development of new processing methods and applications of HF radar data to address oceanography problems. He is currently promoting the use of high resolution VHF ocean radars, based on the PortMap high resolution radar.
René Garello, professor at Télécom Bretagne, Fellow IEEE, co-leader of the TOMS (Traitements, Observations et Méthodes Statistiques) research team, in Pôle CID of the UMR CNRS 3192 Lab-STICC.
Kenneth Foote is a Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. He received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from The George Washington University in 1968, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Brown University in 1973. He was an engineer at Raytheon Company, 1968-1974; postdoctoral scholar at Loughborough University of Technology, 1974-1975; research fellow and substitute lecturer at the University of Bergen, 1975-1981. He began working at the Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, in 1979; joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in 1999. His general area of expertise is in underwater sound scattering, with applications to the quantification of fish, other aquatic organisms, and physical scatterers in the water column and on the seafloor. In developing and transitioning acoustic methods and instruments to operations at sea, he has worked from 77°N to 55°S.
Dr. James V. Candy is the Chief Scientist for Engineering and former Director of the Center for Advanced Signal & Image Sciences at the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy received a commission in the USAF in 1967 and was a Systems Engineer/Test Director from 1967 to 1971. He has been a Researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory since 1976 holding various positions including that of Project Engineer for Signal Processing and Thrust Area Leader for Signal and Control Engineering. Educationally, he received his B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Cincinnati and his M.S.E. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is a registered Control System Engineer in the state of California. He has been an Adjunct Professor at San Francisco State University, University of Santa Clara, and UC Berkeley, Extension teaching graduate courses in signal and image processing. He is an Adjunct Full-Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Candy is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and elected as a Life Member (Fellow) at the University of Cambridge (Clare Hall College). He is a member of Eta Kappa Nu and Phi Kappa Phi honorary societies. He was elected as a Distinguished Alumnus by the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Candy received the IEEE Distinguished Technical Achievement Award for the “development of model-based signal processing in ocean acoustics.” Dr. Candy was selected as a IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for oceanic signal processing as well as presenting an IEEE tutorial on advanced signal processing available through their video website courses. He was nominated for the prestigious Edward Teller Fellowship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Dr. Candy was awarded the Interdisciplinary Helmholtz-Rayleigh Silver Medal in Signal Processing/Underwater Acoustics by the Acoustical Society of America for his technical contributions. He has published over 225 journal articles, book chapters, and technical reports as well as written three texts in signal processing, “Signal Processing: the Model-Based Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1986), “Signal Processing: the Modern Approach,” (McGraw-Hill, 1988), “Model-Based Signal Processing,” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2006) and “Bayesian Signal Processing: Classical, Modern and Particle Filtering” (Wiley/IEEE Press, 2009). He was the General Chairman of the inaugural 2006 IEEE Nonlinear Statistical Signal Processing Workshop held at the Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge. He has presented a variety of short courses and tutorials sponsored by the IEEE and ASA in Applied Signal Processing, Spectral Estimation, Advanced Digital Signal Processing, Applied Model-Based Signal Processing, Applied Acoustical Signal Processing, Model-Based Ocean Acoustic Signal Processing and Bayesian Signal Processing for IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society/ASA. He has also presented short courses in Applied Model-Based Signal Processing for the SPIE Optical Society. He is currently the IEEE Chair of the Technical Committee on “Sonar Signal and Image Processing” and was the Chair of the ASA Technical Committee on “Signal Processing in Acoustics” as well as being an Associate Editor for Signal Processing of ASA (on-line JASAXL). He was recently nominated for the Vice Presidency of the ASA and elected as a member of the Administrative Committee of IEEE OES. His research interests include Bayesian estimation, identification, spatial estimation, signal and image processing, array signal processing, nonlinear signal processing, tomography, sonar/radar processing and biomedical applications.