ISA announces winners of 2017 Author Awards

September 29, 2017 — The International Society of Automation (ISA) announced the recipients of its 2017 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 bi-monthly professional journaldedicated to the science and engineering of measurement and automation.

Winners will be honored at a 30 October awards ceremony held during ISA’s 2017 Fall Leaders Meeting in Tampa, Florida.

AWARDS & AWARD RECIPIENTS 

The Keith Otto Award

The Keith Otto Award recognizes 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, which was 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.

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 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 TransactionsBest 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 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.

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.

About ISA

The International Society of Automationis 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 Instituteand the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute