SRI Presidential Achievement Award

SRI's Presidential Achievement Award, established in 2003 by President and CEO Curt Carlson, honors SRI staff members whose extraordinary contributions have made a positive and lasting impact on the world, SRI's clients, and SRI. Recipients of the award are role models–SRI Champions–who exemplify SRI's values: client focus, vision, perseverance, integrity, excellence, passion, and teamwork.

2012
Pharmaceutical Sciences Team

For decades, the efforts of SRI’s Pharmaceutical Sciences team have resulted in countless lives saved by preventing and treating disease and improving quality of life. The team is comprised of more than 30 dedicated, talented research scientists, chemists, technicians, and support staff spanning two SRI divisions: Biosciences and Physical Sciences. Co-located in Menlo Park, California and Harrisonburg, Virginia, the team develops, prepares, and analyzes drug products intended for human testing. They have made contributions to dozens of drugs combating AIDS, asthma, cancer, drug abuse, and other conditions. Additionally, their work in novel aerosol systems are the basis of a 35-year program to ensure worker safety throughout the world. Long-term clients include multiple National Institutes of Health organizations, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, and industry partners.

2012
Desert Owl Team

SRI's Desert Owl team, comprised of more than 100 dedicated, talented scientists, engineers, technologists, operators, analysts, and managers, provided onsite support of U.S. military operations in Iraq through detection of concealed items of interest using SRI's airborne penetrating radar system. The team has met critical needs since 2007, saving hundreds of soldier and civilian lives through their work.

2010
Instrumentation and Simulation Program

For more than 15 years, SRI's Instrumentation and Simulation Program has provided dedicated service to all branches of the Armed Services. Through combat training programs such as FlexTrain™ and services for the National Guard's eXportable Combat Training Center (XCTC) program, the group provides Guard and Army Reserve soldiers with a similar training experience to what active-duty personnel receive at their Combat Training Centers. The training has saved lives, as soldiers implement on the battlefield the training they received before deployment.  National Guard soldiers have said it's "the best training we've ever received". As of early 2010, the group had performed combat training exercises in 15 states for more than 20,000 troops.

The foundation for this excellent performance is a variety of test and training range programs and technologies developed at SRI over the past 30 years. In recent years, there have been successful programs to provide instrumentation to the U.S. Marine Corps and test instrumentation to the U.S. Army T&E Command and the Joint Special Operations Command. Today, the group continues to provide innovative solutions in the area of live-virtual-constructive integration.

2008
Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group

From 2002 to 2009, Rosettex, based in Arlington, Virginia, was a premier and trusted provider of collaborative technology solutions to satisfy the special needs of national security and homeland defense. The team managed more than 80 leading commercial companies, academic institutions, research organizations, systems integrators, and analysis firms seeking solutions to the U.S. Government's diverse and demanding information technology needs as defined by the National Technology Alliance (NTA). Rosettex was managed by SRI under contract for more than four years to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), which manages the NTA.

2007
Center for Software Engineering

Since 2000, the Center for Software Engineering in SRI’s Information Systems Division has developed high-quality software products and systems solutions for SRI’s commercial and government clients. Critical capabilities include software development, engineering, project management, and the application of best practices and industry standards.

The Center is customer-focused, working with R&D teams within SRI and with external clients directly. The Center provides the expertise, staff, and resources needed to develop prototypes of research software into high-quality, reliable products.

The team includes staff members at the SRI campuses in Menlo Park, California; San Luis Obispo, California; Helena, Montana; and St. Petersburg, Florida. The team leverages this experience in distributed development to collaborate with developers, contractors, and partner companies.

2006
Artificial Intelligence Center

For four decades, SRI’s Artificial Intelligence Center has been at the forefront in developing computer capabilities for intelligent behavior in complex situations. The Center’s comprehensive long-term programs cover image and language understanding, knowledge representation, planning and reasoning, multisource information integration, learning, distributed systems, bioinformatics, and autonomous robots.

Pioneering achievements include Shakey, the first autonomous mobile robot that could reason about its own surroundings, STRIPS—the first practical automated planning system, and PROSPECTOR—an expert system that gave advice to geologists about ore deposits. The Center also created Centibots—the first large-scale collaborative robotic system developed to perform reconnaissance missions, and HALO— a system that can be taught by domain experts the knowledge necessary to produce user- and domain-appropriate answers and justifications to previously unseen questions in a growing number of domains.

The Center led 27 organizations in the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project, which developed a personalized assistant that learns to support decision-making tasks.

2006
Center for Education and Human Services

Renowned as a major and pioneering contributor to better policy and services for special-needs children, youth, and their families, SRI’s Center for Education and Human Services defined the field of longitudinal studies of the impact of special education. Over more than 20 years, the Center has designed and conducted the federal government’s national studies of the characteristics, experiences, and outcomes of children and youth with disabilities across the age range.

In addition, the Center’s early childhood program provides assistance to states in improving early intervention services for children with disabilities. It also includes the statewide evaluation of First 5 California, which provides funds from the state tobacco tax to support early childhood programs in every county in the state. Other Center research concentrates on community services and strategies that address the impacts of programs that improve child and family outcomes in such areas as children’s health, academic achievement, and teen pregnancy prevention. Evaluations also focus on the impacts of partnerships between schools, parents, and communities to enhance children’s social, emotional, and physical development.

2006
Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics

Leading the development of safer drugs to cure diseases, SRI’s Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics team in SRI Biosciences conducts major drug development programs for a broad range of diseases including malaria, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, Cooley’s anemia, and Alzheimer’s disease. The group focuses on rare and “orphan” diseases that affect small patient populations and developing nations—situations offering little profit but having a huge social impact globally.

The Toxicology and Pharmacokinetics team is the single largest contractor to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for drug safety studies, holding nine out of 10 contracts currently available from NIH for safety evaluation of drugs, and has moved more than 50 drugs from discovery into human patients in major therapeutic areas.

2005
CP-1 Team

For more than 30 years, SRI’s "CP-1" team has performed leading-edge research providing solutions to important national security problems. Achievements have been many in this long-running program. The team's remarkable technical contributions reflect 1,000 staff years of experience and SRI's role leading integrated, multi-organizational project teams.

The current team represents many of the Institute’s research centers and disciplines, including engineering, physics, data analysis, algorithm development, and security.

2005
Donald L. Nielson

During his 40 years with SRI International, Donald Nielson played a key role in guiding the organization and in developing some of the institute’s most celebrated innovations.

While much of his early work at SRI was centered in conventional radio systems, in 1972 he and his colleagues recognized the emerging potential of digital systems and the eventual convergence of digital communications and computing.  This vision was so clear that, in a rare initiative within SRI, they petitioned to move their communications laboratory into the computing research environment at SRI where he became the laboratory’s director.

What followed gave SRI opportunities to create some of the earliest innovations in computer communications including, in 1973, leading the design and integration of the world’s first mobile digital radio network, called Packet Radio, and, in 1976, building the first implementation of the internet protocol TCP and using it to span that radio network and the existing ARPANET with the first internet transmissions anywhere.

This laboratory also introduced UNIX to SRI and then contributed some of its early communications features. Dr. Nielson and his laboratory also created some of the first handheld digital terminals for computer access which, by design, were also the first portable communications devices for the deaf. Shortly thereafter, in 1978, SRI built for that community one of the first publicly accessible electronic mail systems.

While an SRI vice president and director of the Computing and Engineering Sciences Division, Dr. Nielson helped launch two of SRI’s most successful spin-off companies: Nuance Corporation, a leader in automatic speech recognition, and Intuitive Surgical, Inc., which offers a revolutionary minimally invasive surgical system.

After retiring from management roles in 1998, he documented SRI’s origins and unique research accomplishments in a book, A Heritage of Innovation: SRI’s First Half Century.

Dr. Nielson, a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, has won a Distinguished Service Medal from the U.S. Air Force and SRI’s Mimi Award for fostering the professional growth of co-workers, and is a member of the SRI Alumni Hall of Fame.

Dr. Nielson received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and has served on technical advisory committees for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Defense Communications Agency (DCA), and for the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board. He was also a member of the National Research Council studies on Air and Space Transportation and Network-Centric Naval Forces. 

2004
Center for Geospace Studies

Over more than two decades, SRI's Center for Geospace Studies, led by director John Kelly, has created a world-leading research activity in atmospheric space weather using radar diagnostics, made fundamental discoveries in an area of environmental research that is of primary importance to humanity, and fostered international collaboration and the training of students and colleagues in the field.

The Center conceived and led the creation of the world's first relocatable, real-time tracking atmospheric radar measurement system, the Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar (AMISR).

The Center's achievements have brought recognition and honor to all of SRI while exemplifying the values that SRI fosters and admires.

2003
Paul Jorgensen

Paul Jorgensen joined SRI in 1968 as chairman of the Ceramics Department, following success at General Electric where he co-invented the high-pressure sodium lamps that now light streets and highways. Dr. Jorgensen, who received a Ph.D. from Brigham Young University, then became Executive Director of Physical Sciences, Vice President of Physical and Life Sciences, and ultimately Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. In 1994, he was named Executive Vice President for Major Programs.

Dr. Jorgensen expanded SRI's global reputation, establishing long-term relationships with clients in Europe and Asia. He opened the first SRI office in Japan, and he ran the China Economic Technology Alliance -- a techonomic collaboration founded by SRI to foster relationships between the Chinese government and major corporations around the world.

The SRI Fellows Program was established through Dr. Jorgensen's efforts. He championed the founding, design, and construction of the Physical Sciences Building in Menlo Park, Calif. He was instrumental in changing SRI policy to establish royalty sharing with inventors.

Since retiring in 2000, Dr. Jorgensen has been sought out by SRI staff members for his experience and insight on building business through good client relations.

2003
George Abrahamson

George Abrahamson began his SRI career in 1953. He joined what was then known as the Extreme Pressures and Explosives Laboratory, later named the Poulter Laboratory in honor of Thomas Poulter, one of Dr. Abrahamson's mentors.

While working at SRI, Dr. Abrahamson received his Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from Stanford University in 1958. He was named Director of the Poulter Laboratory in 1969 and Vice President of the Physical Sciences Division in 1980. He then assumed the vice presidency of the Life Sciences Division in 1988, with the new title of Vice President of Sciences.

At SRI, Dr. Abrahamson developed a program for the Air Force to simulate the effects of nuclear weapons on reentry vehicles. He led a team that made SRI a key developer and tester of vulnerability and lethality criteria for missile and anti-ballistic-missile systems exposed to nuclear attack. He also led development of innovative uses of high explosives and propellants. Many of his ideas in scale modeling of dynamic phenomena are in use today throughout the world.

In 1991, Dr. Abrahamson left SRI to be the Chief Scientist for the U.S. Air Force. He held that position until 1994 when he returned to SRI as Acting Vice President of the Physical Sciences Division.

Dr. Abrahamson remained very active at SRI; he cofounded and led the SRI Alumni Association and the Gibson Achievement Award committee. He passed away in June 2003.