James D. Meindl, director of the Joseph M. Pettit Microelectronics Research Center and the Joseph M. Pettit Chair professor of microsystems at Georgia Institute of Technology, was awarded the 2006 Medal of Honor at an IEEE honors ceremony Saturday in Minneapolis. Mendl's pioneering contributions to microelectronics transformed medical research, improved portable military devices and resulted in the creation of a portable electronic reading aid for the blind, IEEE said. He received the award for "pioneering contributions to microelectronics, including low power, biomedical, physical limits and on-chip interconnect networks." As a result of Meindl’s work, doctors now have the ability to utilize microsized implantable instruments to help diagnose medical conditions, IEEE said. "During his career as a scientist, educator and high-level technology executive, Meindl also has supervised more than 80 PhD graduates who went on to have profound impacts on the semiconductor industry, " IEEE said. He was the founding director of the Center for Integrated Systems at Stanford and was the former senior vice president for academic affairs and provost of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Other IEEE award recipients were: Edwin Catmull, president, Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, Emeryville, Calif.; John von Neumann Medal (sponsored by IBM Corp.), for contributions to computer graphics and for his pioneering role in the use of computer animation in motion pictures.Donald C. Wetzel, retired, co-founder, chairman and sales manager, Electronic Signature Verification Systems, Dallas; IEEE Simon Ramo Medal (sponsored by Northrop Grumman Corp.), for conceiving, implementing and promoting the ATM (automatic teller machine).Vladimir I. Levenshtein, leading scientific researcher, Keldysh Institute for Applied Mathematics, Moscow; IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (sponsored by Qualcomm Inc.), for error-correcting codes and information theory, including the Levenshtein distance.ARM Ltd., Cambridge, England, IEEE Corporate Innovation Recognition, for creating the ARM microprocessor technology that has been successfully embedded into a broad spectrum of today’s digital consumer electronic products.Shoichiro Yoshida, chairman of the board and CEO, Nikon Corp., Tokyo, IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal (ponsored by Intel Foundation), for contributions to and leadership in the technology and business development of IC lithography. One of his most notable accomplishments is the development of advanced steppers and scanners, high-precision instruments used in the complex process of making integrated circuits. He led an R&D team that developed the industry's first production-worthy stepper in 1980.John M. Wozencraft, professor emeritus, electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, Cambridge, Mass.; IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal (sponsored by Lucent Technologies), for the development of sequential decoding and the signal space approach to digital communication.Fawwaz T. Ulaby, vice president for research and a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; IEEE Edison Medal for pioneering research in microwave and radar remote sensing technology and their environmental and industrial applications.Sanjit K. Mitra, professor of electrical and computer engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara; IEEE James H. Mulligan Jr. Education Medal (sponsored by The Mathworks Inc.) (Pearson Prentice Hall, National Instruments Foundation and Xilinx Inc.), for outstanding contributions to electrical engineering education through pioneering textbooks, innovative laboratory development and curriculum reform.Toshiharu Aoki, counselor and senior vice president, NTT Data Corp., Tokyo; IEEE Founders Medal (sponsored by the IEEE Foundation), for outstanding visionary leadership in global standardization and commercialization of broadband multimedia networks.Thomas Kailath, professor emeritus, electrical engineering, Stanford University; IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal (sponsored by Texas Instruments Inc.), for his contributions to the theory and applications of statistical signal processing.Mitsumasa Koyanagi, professor of bioengineering and robotics, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan; Kiyoo Itoh, fellow, Hitachi Ltd., Tokyo; and Hideo Sunami, professor, Research Center for Nanodevices and Systems, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan; IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal (sponsored by the Federation of Electric Power Companies, Japan, and the Semiconductor Research Foundation), for their pioneering contributions to dynamic random access memory (DRAM) cell structures and architecture.Eli Brookner, principle engineering fellow, Raytheon Corp,, Sudbury, Mass.; IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications (sponsored by Raytheon Co.), for his contributions to phased array radar system designs, radar signal processing designs, and continuing education programs for radar engineers.Donald M. Bolle, professor emeritus, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa., and provost emeritus, Polytechnic University, New York; IEEE Richard M. Emberson Award (sponsored by the IEEE technical activities board) for a distinguished career of institute leadership in the technical and transnational areas.Antonio C. Bastos, assistant for planning and academic management, Faculadade de Technologia e Ciencias, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil; IEEE Haraden Pratt Award, for leadership and distinguished service in sustaining and extending IEEE’s global recognition.Vladimir Rokhlin, professor of computer science and mathematics, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; IEEE Honorary Membership (sponsored by IEEE), for the development of the fast multipole method.For more information, visit: www.ieee.org