SRI Fellows Awards 2000 – Present

2012

Jeff Weiss is chief scientist in SRI's Communications, Radar, and Sensing Program. He began his career as a particle physicist and made important contributions at several of the world’s leading physics centers, including CERN, Argonne National Laboratory, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He joined SRI in 1985 and became part of the CP-1 program team, which performs leading-edge research to provide solutions to important national security problems. Jeff rose quickly to become the program’s hands-on scientific director. His brilliant contributions to remote sensing and his technical leadership have been instrumental in the success of the program for nearly 30 years. The team represents many of SRI’s disciplines, including engineering, physics, data analysis, algorithm development, and security.

Robert Wilson is director of SRI's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory. He joined SRI in 1982 as an inorganic chemist in the laboratory he now leads. Over the past 30 years, he has made important contributions in the areas of catalysis and chemical processes focusing on organometallic and inorganic chemistry and homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. His research activities have resulted in a wide range of new and important developments in chemical processes for polymerization, separations, and light hydrocarbon conversion. Important improvements also have been forthcoming for direct and indirect coal liquefaction, gasification technologies, water-gas-shift chemistry, and biofuels. His efforts have attracted considerable attention from the chemical industry. His recent focus is on new technologies to support the transition to a sustainable economy through synthetic fuels, biofuels, and energy storage.

2011

Harpreet S. Sawhney is technical director of the Vision and Learning Laboratory in SRI's Information and Computing Sciences division in Princeton, New Jersey. He has extended the scope of vision at SRI from basic sensor processing to recognition and reasoning about objects and activities in complex scenes. He led the conceptualization and realization of innovative algorithms in 2D and 3D processing. He introduced the idea of video object fingerprinting to tackle the difficult problem of object tracking across non-overlapping cameras. Sawhney has published more than 90 papers and holds 34 patents.

Carolyn Talcott is program director of the symbolic systems technology group in SRI's Computer Science Laboratory, and manager of the computational biology group in SRI Shenandoah Valley. Her work, published in more than 130 articles, can be summarized under the general heading of formal reasoning about computers and biological systems. The importance of formal reasoning lies in its ability to discover and verify properties of systems that support critical infrastructure, financial, manufacturing, and military applications. Talcott has also applied formal reasoning to better understand complex biological systems.

2010

Thomas Kilduff, senior director of Center for Neuroscience and Metabolic Diseases in SRI Biosciences, co-discovered the brain peptides known as the hypocretins. This discovery has been described a major advance in sleep research, and neuroscience more broadly, because it led to the recognition that the sleep disorder narcolepsy is a neurodegenerative disease. Since the initial description of the hypocretins, Kilduff has been instrumental in advancing understanding of the anatomy and function of this neuropeptide system and involved in therapeutic development for the treatment of narcolepsy and other sleep disorders. Outside colleagues describe his contributions as consistently original, innovative, and of high impact. In 2010, he was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Elizabeth Shriberg, formerly a senior research psycholinguist in SRI's Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory, has made fundamental contributions to speech science and technology. With colleagues at SRI and elsewhere, Shriberg has used large databases to study how people really talk, and developed computational models that have significantly advanced both automatic spoken language understanding and speaker recognition. The scientific impact of her work has been to show that natural communication is not a "noisy" version of written text, but rather a richer version—and one that we ultimately need to model for intelligent processing of found data and for natural spoken interfaces. In 2009, Shriberg received the International Speech Communication Association Fellow Award.

Mary Wagner, principal scientist in SRI's Center for Education and Human Services and a past recipient of SRI's Mimi Award, is a leading researcher in the field of special education research and a preeminent pioneer in conducting large-scale national policy-relevant research for children and youth with disabilities. As such, Wagner has played a vital role in the transformation of special education in America. The National Longitudinal Transition Study, perhaps the most influential study conducted in special education and conducted under her direction, has completely changed the national landscape for secondary school education and transition (school-to-work) experiences for students with special needs.

2009

Yigal Blum, associate director of the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, is a pioneer in the development of preceramic polymers—organic-inorganic hybrid materials used to form high-value ceramics and tough adherent coatings for a wide range of surfaces. Blum has advanced fundamental understanding of the processes used to convert pliable organo-metallic materials into strong ceramic composites and extended their applications as practical polymeric materials for robust electronic and biomedical applications. His goal has been development of better materials through advanced chemistry. Blum is now also investigating new nanotechnology-based composite concepts, organic-inorganic hybrids other than the preceramic polymers and is involved in organic electronics R&D. He has a significant patent portfolio as well as numerous scientific publications.

Natarajan Shankar, a staff scientist in SRI's Computer Science Laboratory, performs research and is published across a wide spectrum ranging from fundamental mathematics to system software building. He is responsible for the creation of the highly influential Prototype Verification System (PVS), a benchmark system for the development of proofs and the verification of algorithms against which other systems are compared. Shankar's current research ranges from foundational aspects of logic and programming to practical applications in software development, as well as system certification. He is also very active in the software technology community and has hosted dozens of students, professors, and technology leaders from around the world. Shankar is considered one of the leading scientists in his field, and has played a central role in several international research initiatives.

2008

Peter Karp, director of the Bioinformatics Research Group in SRI's Artificial Intelligence Center, works in the interdisciplinary field of bioinformatics, which develops computer science methods for managing and analyzing the burgeoning quantities of biological data and knowledge. Karp has been a pioneer in metabolic-pathway bioinformatics. His group has developed a metabolic-pathway database called EcoCyc that charts the complete biochemical factory within an Escherichia coli cell. His group has developed algorithms for visualization of metabolic networks, for predicting anti-bacterial drug targets within metabolic networks, and for predicting the metabolic pathways of an organism whose genome has been sequenced. The latter algorithm has been applied to hundreds of organisms.

Jeremy Roschelle, co-director of the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI, investigates how to democratize access to advanced mathematics. Through his leadership, the SimCalc project has integrated interactive and visual technology with curriculum and teacher training to enable low-income and minority students to progress rapidly in their understanding of rates, proportionality, and linear functions. He helped pioneer large-scale school-based randomized experiments to prove that this approach enables diverse students to learn more effectively. This research is a leading example of how technology can address one of the most important challenges to the health of any modern nation: the ability of its schools to engage diverse students in learning mathematics more deeply.

 2007

John Kelly, a physicist and program director for the Center for Geospace Studies, has led the use of incoherent scatter (IS) radar for remote atmospheric sensing for 25 years. Under his direction, the SRI-run, NSF-funded facility in Sondrestrom, Greenland has become a world leader, and his role in relocating it from Alaska was a significant achievement. Kelly was also instrumental in promoting and establishing the Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR) program despite enormous logistical and political barriers, with the result that SRI is regarded as one of the highest-ranking institutions in IS radar research.

Adolf Pfefferbaum, director of the Neuroscience Program in SRI's Center for Health Sciences, has been at the forefront of neuroimaging and electrophysiological research in normal aging and neuropsychiatric disorders for more than three decades. At SRI, he has focused on devising novel approaches for quantitative neuroimaging data to yield measures of brain structures and tissue composition (using magnetic resonance imaging, MRI), microstructure (MR diffusion tensor imaging, DTI), chemistry (magnetic resonance spectroscopy), and function (functional MRI) in the living human. Pfefferbaum’s research in chronic alcoholism has enabled detection of alcoholism's dynamic course, through drinking, sobriety, and relapse and has demonstrated an increased vulnerability of the aging brain to excessive drinking. Recently, he has implemented neuroimaging methods to parallel human conditions in animal models to identify mechanisms of harm with drinking and healing with sobriety.

2006

James Colton, senior scientific advisor to SRI’s Poulter Laboratory, is an expert in the effects of explosions and impacts on structures. He has led many programs in which explosives are used to simulate a variety of dynamic effects. For example, he has developed an explosive device for simulating the hypervelocity impact of a chemical weapon. This device is being used to study the dispersion of the chemical agent and ultimately the consequences on the ground. In another project, he is developing a system for hardening windows against terrorist bombs that with a novel technique to catch the glass and protect the building occupants.

Ronald Pelrine, chief scientist in SRI’s Robotics Program, works in areas that often fall between traditional engineering and physics. He has developed new technology in electroactive polymers, magnetic levitation, robots and robotic mobility, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and sensing. He is a principal inventor of dielectric elastomers, a type of electroactive polymer often referred to as artificial muscle. He believes that some of the most exciting technical advances come from ideas that appear unlikely, such as engines made from rubbery polymers.

2005

Patrick Lincoln, director of SRI's Computer Science Laboratory, leads research in the fields of formal methods, computer security and privacy, computational biology, scalable distributed systems, and nanoelectronics. He has directed multidisciplinary teams on high-impact projects that include symbolic systems biology, scalable anomaly detection, exquisitely sensitive biosensor systems, strategic reasoning and game theory, and privacy-preserving data sharing and analysis. For example, he developed a method to address sublithographic-scale electronic devices using modulation doping of nanowires.

Ripudaman Malhotra, associate director of SRI's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, considers himself a soldier in what President Jimmy Carter called the "moral equivalent of war" to gain energy independence. He has worked extensively on the processing, properties, and analysis of coal, oil, and natural gas. By conducting detailed mechanistic studies in these systems, he has developed innovative processes to achieve product selectivity and increased efficiencies. His work on coal liquefaction and pyrolysis resulted in identification of novel pathways for hydrogen transfer by which strong bonds in coals are broken, and his work on fullerenes led to the discovery of the catalytic properties of fullerene soot, a byproduct, for hydrocarbon processing.

2004

Jeff Bottaro, formerly a scientist in SRI's Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, has had a lifelong fascination with the chemistry of nitrogen, which is central to the behavior of both drugs and explosives. After he joined SRI, he began work to develop novel energetic materials for use as explosives and propellants. From this research, came ammonium dinitramide (ADN), a high-energy material crucial to the secret Soviet preemptive missile program, but unknown in the West. SRI now holds several patents for its manufacture. Bottaro is now exploring synthetic methods for other, novel energetic materials and medical applications for the electronically unique dinitramide anion.

John Rushby, director of SRI's Formal Methods and Dependable Systems program in SRI's Computer Science Laboratory, works on automated methods for analyzing correctness properties of software designs. In this approach, designs are treated as logical formulas, and their properties are calculated using techniques from automated theorem proving. Under his leadership for more than 15 years, the Formal Methods program has become recognized as a worldwide  leader in this field, and developed tools and techniques that are widely used in teaching and research. His own specialty the application of these methods to security and safety-critical systems, and he has been influential in their adoption by industry.

2003

Barbara Means, co-director of SRI's Center for Technology in Learning, studies the interplay between technology and educational reform. She is regarded as a leader in defining issues and approaches for evaluating the implementation and efficacy of technology-supported educational innovations. Her research has led to a better understanding of the different learning goals high- and low-poverty schools pursue in their use of technology. She has highlighted the implications of these differences for students' opportunity to master complex content in presentations to policymakers, including a Congressional subcommittee. She was a key contributor to the description of learning technologies in the highly influential National Research Council publication How People Learn.

Gregory Smith, a senior research chemist in SRI's Molecular Physics Laboratory, has investigated the chemical kinetics of combustion, the atmosphere, and other gas phase processes. His work includes the development and application of optical techniques such as laser induced fluorescence to species measurements in flames and to specific reaction rate determinations. He also specializes in theoretical methods to extrapolate or estimate reaction rates, and modeling of processes to establish quantitative links between observations or outcomes, and chemical reactions and uncertainties. This has included a collaboration to develop the widely used, optimized GRIMech mechanism for natural gas combustion.

2002

Lawrence Toll, formerly a senior director of the Neuropharmacology Program in SRI Biosciences, studies the pharmacology of drug abuse. He has teamed with medicinal and computational chemists to design and evaluate novel opiates and opiate-like compounds that may act as analgesics with reduced addiction liability. In grants and contracts with the National Institute on Drug Abuse at SRI, he was involved in the opiate and cocaine treatment discovery programs for the development of effective treatment medications. He was involved in the discovery of nociceptin, the endogenous neurotransmitter for a member of the opiate receptor family. This has led to collaborations with computer scientists for the computational identification and biological verification of additional peptide neurotransmitters and hormones.

David E. Cooper, director of the Sensor Systems Laboratory, is an expert in optical physics and laser spectroscopy. He pioneered the application of tunable semiconductor diode lasers to trace chemical analysis using frequency modulation spectroscopy, and has developed spectroscopic instrumentation for a variety of industrial, environmental, and military applications. More recently, he has applied optical sensing methods to the detection of chemical and biological weapons. His current research is focused on the development of sensitive detection systems for biological warfare defense using upconverting phosphor technology. This work has led to the development of several novel sensor platforms that are being used by the U.S. Department of Defense.

2001

Keith R. Laderoute, director of SRI's Cancer Biology Program in SRI Biosciences, is an expert in the biology of the tumor microenvironment. His work includes fundamental studies of gene expression in tumor and normal cells exposed to low oxygen conditions, and mechanisms of action of anticancer drugs active in such microenvironments. His current research focuses on helping SRI scientists to develop predictive computer models of how cells receive and interpret signals from their environment. These in silico models could augment the ability of biomedical researchers to develop new pharmaceuticals.

Peter G. Neumann, principal scientist in SRI's Computer Science Laboratory, is concerned with computer systems, networks, security, reliability, survivability, safety, election-system integrity, and privacy. With doctorates from Harvard and Darmstadt, he moderates the ACM Risks Forum, chairs the ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy, and cofounded People For Internet Responsibility. He authored Computer-Related Risks. He is a member of the U.S. General Accounting Office information technology executive council, and the National Science Foundation CISE advisory board. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

2000

Kristien Mortelmans, a senior microbiologist in SRI Biosciences, is an expert in screening chemicals with the bacterial Ames Salmonella assay, which is used on a worldwide basis as an initial screen to determine the mutagenic potential of new chemicals and drugs. The test is also used for submission of data to regulatory agencies for registration or acceptance of many chemicals. She isolated the mutagenesis-enhancing plasmid pKM101, which played a crucial role in making the Ames assay highly sensitive to many mutagens. She also is a recognized researcher in the field of environmental, medical, and industrial microbiology.

Marcy Berding, a senior research physicist in SRI's Applied Optics Laboratory, has done extensive work on the properties of defects in semiconductors. Her approach combines state-of-the-art ab initio calculations with thermodynamics to develop a better understanding of how defects behave as a function of growth and processing conditions. This approach has been applied to predict process improvements for materials used for infrared detectors (HgCdTe) and for x- and gamma-ray detectors (CdZnTe).