Celebrating Excellence Recognition honors members, volunteers, leaders and sections for advancing the mission of the International Society of Automation and contributing to the field of automation.
The following awards were previously presented by ISA to recognize outstanding contributions across the profession and the Society. While they are no longer active, the historical recipients are honored here for their achievements and impact.
The Albert F. Sperry Founder Award was the Society's outstanding achievement award and recognized an outstanding technical, educational, or philosophical contribution to the science and technology of instrumentation, systems and automation.
The Distinguished Friends of ISA Program, served as an honor program for companies that provided significant support for ISA and assisted the Society in achieving its goals and objectives.
The Distinguished Society Service Award, recognized Society members who had at least fifteen (15) years of accumulated, devoted service and contribution to organizational units of the Society and its members.
The Don W. Thompson Award, recognized exemplary efforts and achievements to encourage and support student activity and to mentor students.
The Donald P. Eckman Award, recognized an outstanding contribution(s) toward education and training in the science, engineering and technology of instrumentation, systems, and automation.
The Douglas H. Annin Award recognized an outstanding achievement in the design, application, or development of the components in an automatic control system from the input measurement through the final control element.
The E.G. Bailey Award, established in 1985, recognized excellence in the design, development or application of instrumentation, systems, and automation in the utilities or process control industries.
The Emerging Leader Service Award, recognized Society Members who made significant contributions to organizational units of the Society and its Members and had no more than 10 years of accumulated membership.
The Excellence in Documentation Award recognized the author(s) of the most outstanding article, paper, or other document published by the Society.
The Golden Achievement Award recognized society members who had at least 25 years of ISA membership and continuing active service and epitomized the membership ideals of the society.
Recognizes individuals, members or non-members, whose support of and/or contributions to the advancement of the automation profession deserve special recognition.
The ISA Analysis Division Luft Award recognized outstanding contributions in the analytical technology field.
This award was presented by the ISA Publications Department to recognize the Best Paper Published in ISA Transactions in the previous year. ISA Transactions plays an important role in maintaining ISA‘s visibility and reputation in the automation and control research community.
Lotfi Saidi, Jaouher Ben Ali, and Farhat Fnaiech were the recipients for their paper, Application of higher order spectral features and support vector machines for bearing faults classification, which appeared in Volume 54, January 2015.
Jun-yong Zhai and Wen-ting Zha were the recipients for their paper, Global adaptive output feedback control for a class of nonlinear time-delay systems, which appeared in Volume 53, Issue 1.
Ryo Tanaka, Hiroki Shibasaki, Hiromitsu Ogawa, Takahiro Murakami, and Yoshihisa Ishida were the recipients for their paper, Controller design approach based on linear programming, which appeared in Volume 52, Issue 6.
David Kuhm, Dominique Knittel, and Marie-Ange Bueno were the recipents for their paper, Robust control strategies for an electric motor driven accumulator with elastic webs, which appeared in Volume 51, Issue 6.
Young-Chul Choi, Jin-Ho Park, and Kyoung-Sik Choi were the recipients for their paper, An impact source localization technique for a nuclear power plant by using sensors of different types, which appeared in Volume 50, Number 1.
Subhasis Chaudhuri, Rajeev Kumar Singh, Kuntal Patwari, Susanta Majumdar, Asim Kumar Ray, Arun Kumar Prasad Singh, and Nirbhar Neogi were the recipients for their paper, Design and implementation of an automated secondary cooling system for the continuous casting of billets, which appeared in Volume 49, Number 1.
Belle R. Upadhyaya, Lonnie A. Coffey, and Fan Li were the recipients for their paper entitled, Model-based monitoring and fault diagnosis of fossil power plant process units using Group Method of Data Handling, which appeared in Volume 48, Number 2.
Matej Gašperin, Ðani Juricic, Bojan Musizza, and Igor Mekjavic were the recipients for their paper, A model-based approach to the evaluation of flame-protective garments, which appeared in Volume 47, Number 2.
Terry L. Blevins, Willy K. Wojsznis, Peter Wojsznis, Dirk Thiele, and Ashish Mehta were the recipients for their paper, Multi-objective optimization for model predictive control, which appeard in Volume 46, Number 3.
Rafael Fierro, Ph.D. and Justin Clark were the recipients for their paper, Mobile robotic sensors for perimeter detection and tracking, which appeared in Volume 46, Number 1.
D. Theilliol, H. Noura, D. Sauter, and F. Hamelin are the recipients for their paper, Sensor fault diagnosis based on energy balance evaluation: Application to a metal processing, which appeard in Volume 45, Number 4.
Professor Jose L. Paredes and Mr. Dhionel Diaz were the recipients for their paper, Improving immunization of programmable logic controllers using weighted median filters, which appeard in Volume 44, Number 2.
Brian L.F. Daku, Enas M.A. Mohamed, and Arnfinn F. Prugger were the recipients for their paper, A PVDF transducer for low-frequency acceleration measurements, which appeard in Volume 43, Number 3.
Mikael M. Nordman was the recipient for his paper, A Task Scheduler Framework for Self-Powered Wireless Sensors, which appeared in Volume 42, Number 2.
R. Dubay was the recipient for his paper, Self-Optimizing MPC of Melt Temperature in Injection Moulding, which appeared in Volume 41, Number 1.
This award was presented by the ISA Publication Department in honor of Mr. John McCamey, a member who served the Society for many years within the Publications Department, as well as the Society as a whole. It recognized a promising young author who published their first article in one of the Society's publications.
No awards presented.
Danaca Jordan, Greg McMillan, Héctor Torres, and Hunter Vegas were the recipients for their article, Enabling new automation engineers, which was judged to be the best Student Paper Presentation during the past year.
Alex Tirtichny was the recipient for his paper, “Education a big part of being automation professional” which was judged to be the best Student Paper Presentation during the past year.
Yuqiu You was the recipient for her paper, It's all in the LANs, Manufacturing Remote Control over a Local Area Network, was judged to be the best Student Paper Presentation during the past year.
Adam Leeper was the recipient for his article, Instrumentation of High Speed Inertial Exercise Device Using Load Cell Transducers.
This award is presented by the ISA Publications Department in honor of Mr. Keith Otto, a member who served the Society for many years, particularly as the Chair of the InTech Editorial Advisory Board. It recognizes the authors of the best article in InTech magazine.
Donald G. Dunn and Nicholas Sands were the recipients for their article, Automation IT – Diagnosing your alarm system, which appeared in the July/August 2015 issue of InTech.
Leif Poulsen was the recipient for his article, Life-cycle and long-term migration planning: Successfully upgrading and replacing systems in a running production environment, which appeared in the January/February 2014 issue of InTech.
Harmik Begi, Gregory Bischoff, and Josh Gangl were the recipients for the best InTech magazine article in 2013 entitled, Process Automation—Biopharmaceutical single-to-multiproduct conversion.
Chuck Mina was the recipient for the best InTech magazine article in 2012, Disposable automation.
David Twohig was the recipient for the best article in InTech magazine in 2011, Utility Optimization—Driving economic performance through the utilization of automation technologies.
Graham Nasby and Matthew Phillips were the recipeints for the best InTech article entitled, “SCADA standardization: Modernization of a municipal waterworks with SCADA standardization: Past, present, and planning for the future.”
Bryce H. Elliott, P.E. was the recipeint for the best InTech article entitled, “When failsafe isn't enough”.
Chris O'Brien is the recipient for the best InTech article, High-integrity overflow protection.
Svein Vatland, Trond Michael Andersen, Svein Vatland, and Paula Doyle for the best InTech article, Oil Company of the Future, Wireless, Real-time Data Keys to Growth for Statoil Technology Consortium.
Gary Goble and Todd R. Stauffer for the best InTech article, Don't Be Alarmed—Avoid Unplanned Downtime from Alarm Overload, Use Top Techniques to Improve Alarm Management.
Vivek Bapat, Andreas Somogyi, Alfonso E. Gutierrez, and Raj Veeramani, PhD are the recipiencts for the best InTech article, On the radio—RFID moves upstream from supply chain and into heart of manufacturing operations.
Eric Byres and Justin Lowe is the recipeint for the best InTech article, Insidious threat to control systems—The move to open standards is letting hackers take advantage of the control industry's ignorance.
The Kermit M. Fischer Environmental Award recognized an outstanding achievement in the conception, design, and/or implementation of an application of instrumentation and/or automatic control in the field of environmental science, including applications for the enhancement or preservation of the environment.
The Life Achievement Award recognizes individuals with a history of sustained dedication to the instrumentation, systems, and automation community.
This award was presented by the ISA Publications Department in honor of Mr. Nels Tyring, an ISA member who served the Society for many years, particularly as the Chair of the Journals Editorial Advisory and Oversight Committee. It recognized the author(s) of the best article in one of the Society’s journals.
Moazzam Shamsi is the recipient for his article, System Integration: Wired versus wireless trade-offs, which appeared in the January/ February 2015 issue of InTech and was judged to be the best published article in an ISA journal this past year.
Allan Kern was the recipient for his article, Multivariable control performance: The case for model-less multivariable control, which appeared in the July/August 2014 issue of InTech and was judged to be the best published article in an ISA journal this past year.
Dr. Robert Rice and Richard Bontatibus were the recipients for their article, Automation IT—Predictive maintenance embraces analytics, which was judged to be the best article published in an ISA journal the past year.
Dennis Brandl was the recipient for his article, Business-to-shop integration realized through B2MML, was judged to be the best article published in an ISA journal the past year.
Troy Miller was the recipient for his 2011 article, Success in energy conservation: Emerging best practices, technologies in energy management, which was judged to be the best article published in InTech during the past year.
Scott W. Sommers, PE, CAP, CCST was the recipient for his 2009 Special Section article, Get your feet wet: Industrial users can get started with wireless implementation by following a few guidelines was judged to be the best article published in InTech during the past year.
Thomas M. Canty was the recipient for his April 2009 article, A crude vision was judged to be the best article published in InTech during the past year.
Patrick Schweitzer was the recipient for his April 2008 article, Beauty and the Beast, Users Want Happy Union with Wireless, but Doubts Linger which was judged to be the best article published in InTech during the past year.
May Robin Permann, John Hammer, Kenneth R. Rohde, and Kathleen A. Lee were the recipients for their March 2007 InTech cover story, What Happens in Plant Stays in Plant—INL Control System Plant Assessments Reveal Inconsistencies That Prompt a Primer on Security Measures.
Mark Cusac, James Muri, and Saed Hussain were the recipients for their March 2006 InTech article, Steady Upstream for Loose Control—Custom-built proportional integral loops overcome PLC software limitation.
Hans Wagner was the recipient for his April 2005 InTech article, Ultrasonic spots leaky valves—There are significant savings involved in identification and monitoring of critical valves.
The Arnold O. Beckman Founder Award recognized a significant technological contribution to the conception and implementation of a new principle of instrument design, development, or application.
Presented by the ISA Publications Department, this award was named for Raymond D. Molloy who was a major driving force in the ISA publications program for more than 20 years. As Department Vice President and then later as chair of the Books Committee, Mr. Molloy maintained a keen interest in ISA publishing quality books that meet the needs of measurement and control professionals. On his death in 1996, the Publication Department chose to honor his contributions by establishing this award.
N. E. “Bill” Battikha is the 2022 recipient for his book, The Condensed Handbook of Measurement and Control, Fourth Edition, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2021.
Bryon Lewis was the recipient for his book, Control Systems Engineering Exam Reference Manual: A Practical Study Guide for the NCEES Professional Engineering (PE) Licensing Examination, Fourth Edition, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2020.
No awards presented.
William L. “Bill” Mostia Jr. was the 2018 recipient of the “Raymond D. Molloy Award.” His book, Troubleshooting: A Technician's Guide, Second Edition, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2017.
N. E. “Bill” Battikha was the 2017 recipient of the “Raymond D. Molloy Award.” His book, The Condensed Handbook of Measurement and Control, Third Edition, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2016.
Paul Gruhn, PE, CFSE and Harry L. Cheddie, PE, CFSE were the 2015 recipients for their book, Safety Instrumented Systems: Design, Analysis, and Justification, Second Edition, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2015.
Terrence Blevins, Deji Chen, Mark Nixon and Willy Wojsznis were the 2014 recipients for their book, Wireless Control Foundation: Continuous and Discrete Control for the Process Industry, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2014.
Ronald L. Krutz, PhD, PE wasthe 2013 recipient of the “Raymond D. Molloy Award.” Dr. Krutz’s book, Industrial Automation and Control System Security Principles, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2013.
Terrence Blevins, Willy Wojsznis, and Mark Nixon were the 2012 recipients for their book, Advanced Control Foundation: Tools, Techniques, and Applications, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2012.
Bill R. Hollifield and Eddie Habibi were the 2011 recipients for their book, Alarm Management: A Comprehensive Guide, Second Edition, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2011.
Terrence L. Blevins and Mark J. Nixon were the 2010 recipientsfor their book, Control Loop Foundation — Batch and Continuous Processes, sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2010.
Bianca Scholten was the recipientfor her book, MES Guide for Executives: Why and How to Select, Implement, and Maintain a Manufacturing Execution System, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2009.
Gregory K. McMillan was the recipient for his book, The Funnier Side of Retirement for Engineers and People of the Technical Persuasion, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2008.
Bianca Scholten was the 2007 recipient for her book, The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA95 Standard to Manufacturing, which sold the most units of any book published by ISA in 2007.
Karl J. Ǻström and Tore Hägglund were the recipients for their book, Advanced PID Control.
Michael P. Cable was the recipient for his book, Calibration: A Technician’s Guide.
Fred A. Meier and Clifford A. Meier were the recipients for their book, Instrumentation and Control Systems Documentation.
Jim Pinto was the recipient for his book, Automation Unplugged: Pinto’s Perspectives, Pointers, and Prognostications.
Recognized section leaders who demonstrated leadership and/or provided specific services to advance the mission of the Society.
The Standards and Practices Award, recognized an outstanding contribution to the Society's Standards and Practices effort.
Recognized members who demonstrated leadership and/or provided specific services to advance the mission of the Society.
This award was presented by the ISA Publications department and the ISA Standards and Practices Department in honor of Mr. Thomas G. Fisher, a member and ISA Fellow who served the Society for many years and in particular as Publications Department Vice President, Editor of ISA Transactions, author of books, contributor to standards committees of ISA84, ISA5.1, ISA95 and the driving force of the ISA88 batch control committee. The award was presented to the author(s) of the best new standards-based ISA book in the previous calendar year.
No award presented.
Tom Seubert and Grant Vokey were the recipientsfor their book, Manufacturing Execution Systems: An Operations Management Approach.
No awards presented.
Charlie Gifford was the recipient for his book, The MOM Chronicles: ISA-95 Best Practices Book 3.0.
No awards presented.
Charlie Gifford was the recipient for his book, When Worlds Collide in Manufacturing Operations: ISA-95 Best Practices Book 2.0.
Bianca Scholten was the 2010 recipient for her book, MES Guide for Executives: Why and How to Select, Implement, and Maintain a Manufacturing Execution System.
Bianca Scholten was the recipient for her book entitled, The Road to Integration: A Guide to Applying the ISA95 Standard in Manufacturing.
William M. Goble and Harry L. Cheddie were the 2006 recipients for their book, Safety Instrumented Systems Verification – Practical Probabilistic Calculations.
Fred A. Meier and Clifford A. Meier are the 2005 recipients for their book, Instrumentation and Control Systems Documentation.
Edward Marszal and Eric Scharpf were the recipients for their book, Safety Integrity Level Selection: Systematic Methods Including Layer of Protection Analysis.
The UOP Technology Award, recognized an outstanding achievement in the conception, design, or implementation of instrumentation and/or process control in an area of activity covered by the scope of the Society's Automation & Technology Department.
Recognized members who provided a specific service to advance the mission of the Society.
