Electronic Imaging 2010 IS&T Awards

Wednesday 20 January 2010, IS&T's Immediate Past President Dr. Eric G. Hanson has bestowed awards to two member with a long list of contributions to imaging science, IS&T, and EI.

The IS&T Fellowship is awarded to a Regular Member for outstanding achievement in imaging science or engineering.

Raja Bala for his prolific contributions in the areas of digital color reproduction, color transforms, and printer system modeling.

Raja Bala has been with Xerox Corporation since 1993, where he is currently a principal scientist conducting research and development in digital color imaging.

Prior to this he received his MS (1988) and PhD (1992) from Purdue University, and BS from the University of Texas at Arlington (1987), all in electrical engineering. Dr. Bala's research interests include color management, device characterization, optimal representations and transformations of color, image-adaptive rendering, security printing, and image personalization. His research and inventions have been incorporated into several leading Xerox color products.

Dr. Bala served as an adjunct faculty member in the School of Electrical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology (2003-2005). He has also been an active member of IS&T, notably within the leadership of the IS&T/SID Color Imaging Conference, where he has served as short course, program, and general chair. He has taught many highly-rated courses on system color imaging at IS&T conferences, and has served as associate editor for the Journal of Imaging Science & Technology. He is currently a vice president on the IS&T Board of Directors.

Dr. Bala's awards include the Xerox Excellence in Science & Technology Award (1994) and the R&D Magazine 100 Team Award for Specialty Imaging Technology (2007). He has authored two book chapters and more than 50 conference and journal publications. Dr. Bala has presented several invited talks and articles, and holds more than 50 US patents in the area of digital color imaging.

The IS&T Service Award is given in recognition of service to a Chapter, or to the Society.

Michael Kriss for his efforts on behalf of the Electronic Imaging Symposium, Color Imaging Conference, IS&T Board, and IS&T/Wiley series.

Michael A. Kriss received his PhD (1969) in physics from UCLA before joining Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories to work in the color photography division with a focus on image quality, image structure, image modeling, and simulation. In 1977, he published a chapter on image structure in Theory of the Photographic Process, 4th Edition, edited by Howard James. Dr. Kriss joined the physics division in 1980, where he focused on developing image processing algorithms for scanned film images and digital camera images. He became laboratory head of the Image Processing Laboratory in 1982, which laid the foundations for Kodak's entrance into the “digital age.”

From 1985 to 1988, Dr. Kriss worked with a team of managers to establish a Kodak research facility near Tokyo, Japan. Upon returning to the Research Laboratories, he headed a technical outreach program to universities around the country and managed the Algorithm Development Laboratory until his retirement in late 1992. In 1993, Dr. Kriss joined the University of Rochester. He served as the executive director of the Center of Electronic Imaging Systems and adjunct professor in the Department of Computer and Electrical Engineering where he managed outreach programs with industry and through a NSF Grant created a program on introductory digital imaging and a graduate course in digital imaging technology. During this period, Dr. Kriss wrote chapters on digital photography in the Encyclopedia of Applied Physics, Encyclopedia of Optics, and the IS&T Handbook of Photographic Science and Engineering.

Dr. Kriss returned to the West Coast in 1999 as the manager of the color imaging group at Sharp Laboratories of America until his retirement in 2004.

Dr. Kriss is a Fellow of IS&T and the 1999 recipient of the Davies Medal of the Royal Photographic Society. Dr. Kriss still teaches courses on digital imaging technology as an adjunct professor at Portland State University in Oregon and works with John Wiley & Sons as editor-in-chief for an IS&T series of texts on imaging science and technology.