Automation authors recognised.

The International Society of Automation (ISA) has published the names of 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.

THE AWARDEES

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.

#PAuto #ISAuto

Automation authors recognised!

The recipients of the 2017 author awards presented annually by ISA’s Publications Department have been announced..

“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 bi-monthly professional journaldedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation.

Winners will be honored at an awards ceremony held on 30th October during the ISA’s 2017 Fall Leaders Meeting in Tampa (FL USA).

AWARD RECIPIENTS

The Keith Otto Award

Martin Berutti, Mynah

The Keith Otto Awardrecognizes the author or authors of the best article in InTech magazine. The award category was established in honor of Keith Otto, an ISA member who served the Society for many years, particularly as the Chair of the InTech Editorial Advisory Board.
The recipient of this year’s Keith Otto Award is Martin Berutti, for his article, “Process Automation: Improving plant operations with life-cycle dynamic simulation,” which was published in the January/February 2016 issue. Berutti is the president and COO of MYNAH Technologies LLC, (recently acquired by Emerson).

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 Mark Coughran for his Special Section article, “Know when to look outside the PID tuning,” published in the July/August 2016 issue of InTech. Coughran is a Senior Process Control Consultant at Emerson Process Management.

InTech is the ISA magazine (distributed free to members), which provides thought-provoking and authoritative coverage of automation technologies, applications, and strategies to enhance automation professionals' on-the-job success.

The Raymond D. Molloy Award

Best seller!

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 Bill Battikha for his book, The Condensed Handbook of Measurement and Control, Third Edition (Fourth edition now on sale.), which outsold all other ISA books published in 2016. Battikha is a registered professional engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the field of process instrumentation and control.

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.
The recipients of the ISA Transactions Best Paper Award are Marcin Mrugalski, Marcel Luzar, Marcin Pazera, Marcin Witczak and Christophe Aubrun. The review committee recognized their paper, “Neural network-based robust actuator fault diagnosis for a non-linear multi-tank system,” published in ISA Transactions, Vol. 61, Issue 1, pages 318-328, March 2016.

ISA Transactions

Mrugalski has served as an assistant professor of automatic control and robotics at the Institute of Control and Computation Engineering, University of Zielona Góra in Poland, since 2004.
Luzar serves as a University Assistant at the Institute of Control and Computational Engineering, University of University of Zielona Góra.
Pazera is a doctoral student at the Institute of Control and Computational Engineering, University of University of Zielona Góra.
Witczak has served as an associate professor of automatic control and robotics at the Institute of Control and Computation Engineering, University of Zielona Góra, since 2008.
Aubrun has served as a full professor at the University Henri Poincaré (Nancy1) in Nancy, France, since 2003. He teaches automatic control.

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. ISA members have free online access to ISA Transactions. Non-ISA members can learn more about the journal by clicking here.

#PAuto #ISAuto

Automation authors recognised!

The International Society of Automation (ISA) honoured authors at an awards ceremony held during ISA’s 2016 Fall Leaders Meeting in September 2016. “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 Susan Colwell, director of ISA’s Publications Department and Publisher of ISA’s InTech magazine. 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 bi-monthly professional journal dedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation. ISA's bi-monthly magazine! The Keith Otto Award The Keith Otto Award recognizes the author or authors of the best article in InTech magazine. The award was presented to Donald G. Dunn and Nicholas Sands for their article, “Automation IT—Diagnosing your alarm system,” which appeared in the July/August 2015 issue of InTech. 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. Moazzam Shamsi is this year’s recipient for his article, “System Integration: Wired versus wireless trade-offs,” which appeared in the January/ February 2015 issue of InTech. 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 recipients are Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE  and Harry L. Cheddie, PE, CFSE, whose book, Safety Instrumented Systems: Design, Analysis, and Justification, Second Edition, outsold all other ISA books published in 2015. ISA Transactions Best Paper Award ISA's Journal of Automation 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. The recipients of the ISA Transactions Best Paper Award are Lotfi Saidi, Jaouher Ben Ali, and Farhat Fnaiech. The review committee recognized their paper, "Application of higher order spectral features and support vector machines for bearing faults classification," which was published in ISA Transactions, Vol. 54, (pages 193-206), January 2015. 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. ISA members have free online access to ISA Transactions. Non-ISA members can learn more about the journal by clicking here.

#PAuto #ISAuto 

Prolific author talks!

One of the most prolific authors in the area of control and automation is Greg McMillan. His advice as a mentor is sought and valued throughout the sector. He also has a sense of deprecating and well observed humour and is not afraid to display this in some of his published works.

One of his most popular works is "How to Become an Instrument Engineer: The Making of a Prima Donna!" A work which expresses so well the delights and frustrations of our profession. "Have you ever tried to explain to a spouse or a friend what an instrument engineer does?" he asks in the first few paragraphs, and he has us hooked!

Susan Colwell, of the Publication Department of International Society of Automation (ISA), works closely with him in the publishing of his work. Recently she sat down with him and discussed his work, wit and philosophy. He describes his writing "I find an incredible release in expressing myself and being myself...."

"I write so ideas are not lost....it is a crime to see the expertise that is being lost each day as the most experienced professionals are encouraged to retire, never having the opportunity to pass on the knowledge they gained the hard way." 

It is indeed difficult to quantify the incalculable debt owed by the world of automation to Greg McMillan and the other "doers" who commit their experience, not to say wisdom to posterity in writing.

Her interview may be found on the new ISA Interchange.