2 Earn SPIE Service Awards

SPIE Fellows Robert Breault and John Pellegrino have been honored with awards for their many contributions and service to SPIE. The awards were presented by SPIE President Katarina Svanberg at the Society's annual awards banquet at SPIE Optics + Photonics in August.

Robert Breault, founder and president of the Breault Research Organization (BRO) (USA), received the 2011 SPIE Directors' Award for his many years of exceptional leadership, dedication, and generous commitment of time, support, and inspiration to SPIE and the optics community.

Recognized internationally as a leading expert in stray-light analysis and suppression, Breault's work includes original research on the scattering of coated surfaces, paints, glass, and mirrored surfaces.

After analyzing the Hubble telescope, Breault's work helped improve its performance. He has also analyzed the IRAS, Galileo, Cassini, DIRBE, Spitzer, SOFIA, and several so-called Star War systems.

Since joining SPIE, Breault has served on several standing committees, including the Engineering, Science, and Technology Policy Committee. His activities within the Society include serving as conference chair or co-chair, authoring and presenting papers, and teaching courses at several SPIE conferences.

The author and co-author of two chapters in the "Handbook of Optics," Breault has received recognition awards from NASA (1977, 1978, and 1984) as well as an award from the University of Arizona (1979) for his outstanding dissertation in the field of applied sciences. In 2010, the Arizona Technology Council recognized Breault as the Ed Denison Business Leader of the Year and named BRO Small Business Innovator of the Year.

John Pellegrino, director of the Computational and Information Sciences Directorate (CISD) at the U.S. Army Research Lab, received the SPIE President's award based on his service as chairman of the SPIE Symposia Committee, his professionalism, and commitment to the Society in developing SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing (DSS) to the level of success it has reached today.

In 2010, Pellegrino was selected as a Meritorious Executive, one of the Presidential Rank awards given to senior executives and senior career employees who consistently achieve results, demonstrate strength, integrity, industry, and are committed to excellence in public service.

Pellegrino has served as a Conference Program Committee member, symposium chair, and conference chair or co-chair at DSS and other SPIE events. At DSS in April 2011, Pellegrino moderated "Sensors are no longer king," a well-attended "hot-topics" cross-conference panel.

Pellegrino has also served on the SPIE Board of Directors, the Executive Committee, the Engineering, Science, and Technology Policy Committee, and many other SPIE committees. This year, he continued to bring his valuable insights and experience to the Strategic Planning Committee.

As director of CISD, Pellegrino is responsible for basic and applied research in the fields of electronics, sensors, and power and energy technologies. He has overseen the rapid transition of many technologies from the laboratory to the field.

Offering lifesaving capabilities to soldiers, his team has provided aerostat and airborne persistent-surveillance sensors, unattended ground sensors for area monitoring and defense, and components to counter improvised explosive devices.

SPIE encourages you to nominate a colleague for the Society's annual awards, which recognize outstanding technical achievements by individuals and meritorious service to the Society.

Winners of numerous other SPIE awards are listed at SPIE.org and other 2011 recipients were featured in the July 2011 issue of SPIE Professional magazine.

Nominations made by 1 October will be considered active for three years from the submission date.

More information: spie.org/awardsform.

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