SRI International's Presidential Achievement Award

SRI International's Presidential Achievement Award, established in 2003, 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.

Instrumentation and Simulation Program - 2010
Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group – 2008
Software Engineering Program – 2007
Artificial Intelligence Center – 2006
Center for Education and Human Services – 2006
Toxicology and Pharmacology Department – 2006
CP-1 Team – 2005
Donald L. Nielson - 2005
Center for GeoSpace Studies - 2004
Paul Jorgensen - 2003
George Abrahamson - 2003

During training exercises, a National Guard soldier wears an SRI-provided backpack containing devices that track his actions for replay in an after-action review.

Instrumentation and Simulation Program - 2010

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 the Deployable Force-on-Force Instrumentated Range System (DFIRST) 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 has 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.

Rosettex Technology & Ventures Group – 2008

SRI - Washington, D.C.	SRI Sarnoff - Princeton, NJ	SRI - Menlo Park, CA

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.

Software Engineering Program (SWEP) – 2007

Since 2000, the Software Engineering Program (SWEP) in SRI’s Engineering & Systems Division has developed high-quality software products and systems solutions for SRI’s commercial and government clients. The critical capabilities of the SWEP team include software development, engineering, project management, and the application of best practices and industry standards.

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

The 58-member SWEP 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.

Artificial Intelligence Center – 2006

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 leads 27 organizations in the Cognitive Assistant that Learns and Organizes (CALO) project, which is developing a personalized assistant that learns to support decision-making tasks.

Center for Education and Human Services – 2006

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.

Toxicology and Pharmacology Department – 2006

Leading the development of safer drugs to cure diseases, SRI’s Toxicology and Pharmacology Department in the Biosciences Division conducts major drug development programs for a broad range of diseases including malaria, AIDS, cancer, diabetes, Cooley’s anemia, and Alzheimer’s disease. The Department 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 Department is the single largest contractor to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for drug safety studies, holding nine out of ten 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.

CP-1 Team – 2005

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, multiorganizational project teams.

The current 46-member team represents many of the Institute’s research centers and disciplines, including engineering, physics, data analysis, algorithm development, and security.

Donald L. Nielson – 2005

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. 

Center for GeoSpace Studies – 2004

Over two decades, SRI's Center for GeoSpace Studies 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).

Achievements of the GeoSpace Center have brought recognition and honor to all of SRI while exemplifying the values that SRI fosters and admires.

Members of the Center are Sandie Avlakeotes, Geoffrey Bainbridge, Russell Cosgrove, Richard Doe, Shelly Easterday, Eggert Gudmundsson, Craig Heinselman, John Jorgensen, Tommy Jorgensen, John Kelly (Center Director), Carol Leger, Angela Li, John Livingston, Mary McCready, Weilin Pan, Gary Price, Nathan Rausch, Ennio Sanchez, Joshua Semeter, Roy Stehle, Jeff Thayer, Roland Tsunoda, and Todd Valentic.

Paul Jorgensen – 2003

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 P building. 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.

George Abrahamson – 2003

George Abrahamson (left) receives the first Presidential Achievement Award from SRI President and CEO Curt Carlson (right).

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.