- August 21, 2020
- Research Triangle Park, North Carolina
These programs honor the remarkable achievements and contributions of ISA members.
The International Society of Automation (ISA) has announced the 2020 ISA Fellows and Celebrating Excellence award recipients.The recognitions reflect and honor the outstanding efforts of ISA members in supporting and advancing the Society and the automation community. There are four new ISA Fellows and 14 Celebrating Excellence awardees in 2020. The Admissions Committee was chaired by Bridget Fitzpatrick. The Honors & Awards Committee was chaired by Brian Curtis.
2020 ISA Fellows
The esteemed Fellow member grade is one of ISA's highest honors. To earn this distinction, a Senior Member must possess outstanding and acknowledged engineering or scientific attainments, must receive peer evaluations leading to recommendation for election by the Society Admissions Committee, and finally, must be elected by a majority vote of the Society's Executive Board. In ISA’s 75-year history, 495 ISA Fellows have been elected.This year, the following individuals have been elevated to the distinguished grade of ISA Fellow.
Donald Dunn
WS Nelson, Highlands, Texas, USAFor the education and standardization of terminology, requirements, and guidance for the process industry-wide safety area of alarm management
David Rahn
US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Rockville, Md., USAFor the development and implementation of new methodology and acceptance criteria to establish the reliability of critical safety equipment of nuclear power plants
“I am very honored to be recognized by my colleagues, …and feel very fortunate to be a part of the good work that is being accomplished by ISA to identify and establish good standards and practices in the instrumentation and automation field.” – David Rahn
John Sorge
Retired, Birmingham, Ala., USAIn recognition of his leading, advocating, sponsoring, and technically contributing to activities, projects, and organizations to advance instrumentation and control research on and application of new power generation technologies
“I am extremely honored to receive this recognition.” – John Sorge
Richard Van Fleet
Andritz, Inc., Cumming, Ga., USAFor providing subject matter expertise and technical support relating to sensor development and implementation of advanced process control and sustained process optimization of pulping and bleaching processes
“Thank you very much…. I have been involved with ISA for many years so this is certainly a nice honor to receive.” – Richard Van Fleet
2020 Celebrating Excellence Awardees
The ISA awards program endeavors to stimulate, enhance, encourage, acknowledge, and reward outstanding contributions to ISA and the automation profession by providing an avenue for individuals to compete for recognition within established categories.The Honors & Awards Committee annually receives all award nominations for defined Society awards, reviews the candidate qualifications, and recommends to the Executive Board honorees for approval. We are pleased to celebrate the following honorees.
Excellence in Technical Innovation, Endowed by Honeywell UOP
Soliman Almadi
Saudi Aramco
Dhahran, Eastern Saudi Arabia
“This is great honor. Thank you! I am very proud of being part of this great organization.” – Soliman Almadi
Excellence in Technical Presentation
Abdulkadar Susnerwala
Air Liquide
Houston, Texas, USA
Excellence in Education
Himanshu Patel
Institute of Technology, Nirma University
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Mentoring Excellence
Greg McMillan
Emerson
Austin, Texas, USA
Excellence in Enduring Service
Catherine Andrews
Hile Controls of Alabama
Pelham, Ala., USA
James Haw
La Porte, Texas, USA
Ian Verhappen
Industrial Automation Networks
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Clifford Wuertz
Cypress, Texas, USA
Division Excellence
Analysis Division - Division Leader Excellence
Ed Naranjo
Process Measurement and Control Division
Honeywell
Eagan, Minn., USA
Section Excellence
Bangalore Section - Section Leader Excellence
Maharashtra Section
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Standards Excellence
Donald Dunn
WS Nelson
Highlands, Texas, USA
Volunteer Leader of the Year
Cheri Haarmeyer
Pearland, Texas, USA
About ISA
The International Society of Automation (isa.org) is a non-profit professional association founded in 1945 to create a better world through automation. ISA advances technical competence by connecting the automation community to achieve operational excellence. The organization 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 created the ISA Global Cybersecurity Alliance (isa.org/ISAGCA) to advance cybersecurity readiness and awareness in manufacturing and critical infrastructure facilities and processes. The Alliance brings end-user companies, automation and control systems providers, IT infrastructure providers, services providers, and system integrators and other cybersecurity stakeholder organizations together to proactively address growing threats.
ISA owns Automation.com, a leading online publisher of automation-related content, and is the founding sponsor of The Automation Federation (automationfederation.org), 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 (isasecure.org) and the ISA Wireless Compliance Institute (isa100wci.org).