SMPTE HONOURS & AWARDS

White Plains, NY -- SMPTE has announced the award winners for outstanding achievement in the motion imaging industry. The Annual Honors and Awards ceremony and reception were held Wednesday, November 12 at the Hilton, New York.

Listed below are the individual award recipients and background information on each honoree.

PROGRESS MEDAL
This award is given to honor the individual by recognizing outstanding technical contributions to the progress of engineering phases of the motion picture, television, or motion imaging industries.

This year’s recipient is Stanley N. Baron for his out-standing contributions to digital television and to world-wide digital television standards. Baron has well over 30 years of experience in the design and development of digital television systems. His work has been widely recognized by bodies such as the NAB, the IBC, and the New York Academy of Science. Baron served as Chairman of the ATSC T3 Technology Group and Chairman of ITU-R Task Group 11/3. In 2001, he received the IEEE Charles Proteus Steinmetz Award for his “significant contributions to the development of national and international standards for DTV.” Baron is a Fellow of SMPTE, a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the BKSTS, and a Fellow of the Royal Television Society. He served as President of SMPTE (1995-96) and as SMPTE Engineering Vice-President (1988-1991).

EASTMAN KODAK GOLD MEDAL AWARD
It is the purpose of this award to honor the recipient by recognizing outstanding contributions
which lead to new or unique educational programs utilizing motion pictures, television, and high-speed and instrumentation photography, or other photographic sciences. The award shall
recognize developments, which result in advancing the educational process at any or all levels.

This year’s recipient, George Spiro Dibie, started his career shooting documentaries and educational films. By the mid 70s he shot over 50 MOWs/90 minutes. His first multicamera film show was Buffalo Bill. Other credits for television and pilots include Barney Miller, Murphy Brown (pilot), Driving Miss Daisy (pilot), Room for Two, My Sister Sam, Night Court, Head of the Class (pilot), Sister Sister, Growing Pains, and many more. Dibie has earned 6 Emmy’s and received 11 nominations. He was the first person to be inducted into the Showbiz Hall of Fame and is the first to serve as the National President of the International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600 IATSE. Dibie is a Board Member of the SMPTE Foundation and serves on the Board of Governors of the American Society of Cinematographers. He is a member of the Television Academy and has served on Education, Outreach, and Awards committees.


THE TECHNICOLOR/HERBERT T. KALMUS GOLD MEDAL AWARD
This award is given to honor the recipient by recognizing outstanding contributions in the development of color films, processing, techniques, or equipment useful in making color motion pictures for theater or television use.

This year’s recipient is Thomas G. Wallis. Wallis has had a career at Kodak for 27 years, where most of his work has been devoted to R&D related to the entertainment imaging industry, with roles including photographic scientist, project leader, lab head, division director, and CTO. His initial major contribution was designing the research prototype of what would become Kodak’s first E.I. 200-speed negative film. Before his retirement this spring, his last major contribution came via the Kodak Entertainment Imaging team, which introduced the Kodak Vision2 film portfolio. His awards include SMPTE and Kodak’s Leadership Excellence Award.

THE JAMES A. LEITCH GOLD MEDAL AWARD
It is the purpose of this award to honor the recipient by recognizing outstanding contributions in the application of digital technology to the motion imaging arts and sciences. The award shall recognize developments in software, equipment, systems, or the standardization of technology involved in the acquisition, processing, or distribution of sound and images related to motion imaging.

John Lowry, this year’s recipient, has been working with motion picture and television images for 52 years. Lowry’s primary focus has been the design and development of digital image processing systems to improve the quality of motion picture images. Since 1998, he has been at the forefront of computer-based image processing for film restoration with Lowry Digital Images, a company he founded, which has restored more than 70 major motion pictures. In 1971, he designed the Image Transform system that was used to clean-up and enhance the live television pictures from the moon during the Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 lunar landings. In 1988, he developed one of the first multimedia CD-ROM projects, and helped pave the way for millions of children to learn to read using his CD-ROM software. Lowry holds numerous patents on motion image processing technology and is a Life Fellow of SMPTE.

THE DAVID SARNOFF MEDAL AWARD
It is the purpose of this award to honor the recipient by recognizing outstanding contributions in the development of new techniques or equipment, which have contributed to the improvement of the engineering phases of television, including theater television (Digital Cinema).

SMPTE recognizes Dr. Kerns Powers for his contributions to electronic cinematography, including important work in progressive scanning and the engineering basis for the 16:9 aspect ratio. Dr. Powers has been active in the broadcast industry for over 50 years, and has been instrumental in key developments in the work of SMPTE. He held technical and management positions with RCA/Sarnoff Laboratories beginning in 1951. As Director of
Communications Research, in addition to directing RCA's Communications Research program, he had responsibility for supporting RCA's Broadcast Equipment and Cable TV businesses. Prior to his retirement in 1987 Dr. Powers was Staff Vice President of Communications Research, which included responsibility for three Laboratories, including the Advanced Video Systems Research Laboratory. His contributions to the communications industry were at the highest level, including work which led to important SMPTE standards. His research while at RCA included work on ELF communications systems, satellite communications, and studies of cellular array mobile communications systems, ballistic missile technology, speech synthesis, and other applied and pure research projects. He holds BSEE and MSEE degrees from the University of Texas and an Sc.D. degree from MIT. Dr. Kerns Powers holds SMPTE's highest level of membership, and received the Progress Medal in 1988, and is a Fellow of the IEEE.

THE SAMUEL L. WARNER MEMORIAL MEDAL AWARD
This award is given to honor the individual by recognizing outstanding contributions in the design and development of new and improved methods and/or apparatus for sound-on-film motion pictures, including any step in process.

This year’s recipient is Howard J. Flemming, an engineering manager at Deluxe Film Laboratories Inc. Flemming develops advanced techniques for screening-room and quality-control of multiformat sound-on-film presentations. For over four years, he was responsible for worldwide film laboratory training, R&D development, and support at Sony Cinema Products Corp. He defined the eight-channel motion picture sound format, Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS) film physics, which is the basis of all SDDS Film QC standards. Flemming also made major contributions to the development of Cinema Digital Sound (CDS) technology and received a certificate of appreciation from the Academy in 1991 for his contributions to the CDS system. He also received a Scientific and Technical Academy Award in 1995, for pioneering work in motion picture sound.


THE PRESIDENTIAL PROCLAMATION
This award is given to those individuals of established and outstanding status and reputation in the motion picture and television industries worldwide.

This year’s recipient, Masura “Mac” Jibiki, retired from Fuji Photo Film Co. in 2003, after a 37-year tenure. He contributed significantly to building new film stocks such as the industry’s first high-speed color negative, Fuji 500T speed product. Jibiki held numerous positions at Fuji in both the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., he worked as sole North American technical manager, where he was responsible for handling customer concerns and testing new film products. He was also the chief liaison between the manufacturing facility and end users. In Japan, he worked on the F-Series of color-negative film products that were introduced in the late 1980s. Jibiki has served on SMPTE Standards committees and the Fuji Gold Medal Award committee.


THE JOURNAL AWARD
This award is presented to the author(s) of the most outstanding paper originally published in the Journal of the Society during the preceding calendar year. Papers published in the Journal are eligible only if any previous publication was by the Society.

This year’s Journal Award will be presented to Roger R. A. Morton, Michelle A. Maurer, and Christopher L. Dumont for their paper, “Assessing the Quality of Motion Picture Systems from Scene-to-Digital Data,” published in the Feb./March 2002 issue of the Journal.

Roger R. A. Morton is a research fellow at Eastman Kodak Co., currently working on system optimization of cinema and television systems—from scene to screen. Morton has recently developed a method to predict one type of artifact in digital motion picture systems. To further aid in the understanding of digital artifacts, he has classified 11 other artifact types. His work on algorithms for image analysis, and methods for objectively comparing motion picture systems across different technologies is widely recognized. He has also made significant contributions to digital copiers, digital three-dimensional printing and display, and automatic audio equalization. Morton has authored 22 published scientific works, including those in the 2002 and 2003 SMPTE Journal.

Michelle A. Maurer is an image science R&D engineer at Kodak, currently assigned as project leader for the image enhancement program. During her 12 years at Kodak, she has been involved in the design of new films using computer simulation. Maurer has contributed to the creation of Kodak’s SFX200 film, as well as the Vision and Vision Premier print films. Among her many investigations, she has assessed the impact and interrelation-ship of contrast and film sharpness for motion picture films. She has also been extensively involved in assessments by customers of Kodak products.

Christopher L. DuMont is an R&D manager for entertainment imaging, image science, and systems engineering at Kodak. He has worked in motion picture systems studies for the last 14 years, developing new negative, intermediate, hybrid, and digital products for use in the motion picture industry. His most recent contribution has been a systems design for the new Kodak Vision2 500T color negative film. DuMont has authored and presented at numerous SMPTE conferences and holds seven patents in the imaging science field for Kodak. He is a SMPTE Fellow.

Journal Certificates of Merit will be presented to Leonard J. Reder and Michael Farris, for “A Tour up the Gray Scale Vector of the RGB Color Cube: How Computer Graphics Color Spaces Relate to Digital Video Color Difference Space,” published in the July/August 2002 issue of the Journal and David Bancroft, for “A Very High Bit Rate Data Recorder,” published in the October 2002 issue.

Leonard Reder is with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, where he currently leads the development of astronomical interferometer sequencing software and is involved with image feature detection algorithms. His interests include realtime image and DSP processing for scientific instrumentation, video and film post-production technologies, and software development techniques. He has developed infrastructure applications for integrating nonlinear editing systems, film recorders, and a screening room into the production process for Warner Bros. Reder has served on the SMPTE Working Group on Editorial Procedures and Practices. He is also a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Michael Farris serves as corporate senior scientist at Areté Associates, where he has led efforts in a wide variety of technical areas, including the development of advanced physics-based simulation and signal-processing software. His interests include artificial intelligence, pattern recognition, digital signal processing, and information theory. Farris holds M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geophysics and space physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a B.S. in physics from the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh.

David Bancroft is manager, advanced technology, at Thomson multimedia. He advises product developers in the Film Imaging group in Germany and the Camera group in the Netherlands, and provides guidance on technology directions and opportunities in new applications, such as digital cinematography and digital intermediate post-production. He also represents Thomson in standardization activities at SMPTE and ISO. Bancroft supports these development activities with technical papers at conferences and in journals. He has received several awards including the SMPTE Journal Award in 2001. He is a SMPTE Fellow, a Fellow of the Royal Television Society, and a member of BKSTS and IEEE.

THE LOU WOLF MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP
The Lou Wolf Memorial Scholarship is designed to help students further their undergraduate or graduate studies in motion pictures and television, with an emphasis on technology.

This year’s recipients are Scott Kennedy, Gregory W. Madore, and Christoph Nufer. This group of students represents a diverse and complete set of individuals whose interests and pursuits are clearly within the goals and interests of SMPTE.

Scott Kennedy is currently pursuing a B.A. in both Television & Video Communications and Graphic Design at Madonna University in Livonia, MI. Scott maintains a 4.0 GPA while working as a Production Assistant in the university’s video department. He also assists in the production and post-production of Madonna Magazine, a weekly cable show produced by Madonna University. Scott enjoys working on numerous films and projects in the community, such as the feature, “Project: Tomorrow Men,” which has recently been accepted to the Michigan Independent Film Festival. Scott is known for dedicating himself to projects like this unusual documentary, and has taken on positions such as Graphic Designer, Still Photographer, Public Relations, Post-Production Audio Engineer, Visual Effects, and Associate Producer during the last three years. He has also won a number of awards for poetry, Computer Aided Design, and photography. Even though his days are packed, Scott makes sure to take time out to travel, draw, and play his didgeridoo.

After studying as a Chemical Engineer at the University of Connecticut, Gregory W. Madore made the switch to the B.F.A. Film/Video/Animation Production program at the Rochester Institute of Technology and now specializes in 3D Computer animation. Aside from his work in 3D Animation he is extremely interested in all aspects of sound design, production, and theory. He was the voice talent in, as well as the audio consultant for, the 2003 Student Academy Award winning film “Perpetual Motion” by Kimberly Miner. He spent this past summer interning as a sound engineer at WXXI in Rochester, New York. Currently he is in his senior year at R.I.T. and is the R.I.T. Film/Video/Animation Student Association President. He is working on his thesis film, as well as doing initial work for a sound theory research paper.

Born in Bonn Germany, Christoph Nufer is currently attending the University of Applied Science for Media in Stuttgart. Christoph has interned at Acoustic Media in Friedberg and DoRo Film in Berlin as well as Monkeylandaudio in Burbank California. He is currently interning at IRT where he works analyzing MFX files.

top

Back to Latest Society News