The Douglas R. Colton Medal
for Research Excellence recognizes excellence in research
leading to new understanding and novel developments in microsystems
and related technologies, such as Photonics/Optoelectronics,
Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS), Microelectronics, Microfluidics
and Embedded Software, or the application of microsystems
and related technologies in Canada. The annual award includes
a medal and a monetary prize of $4,000. Previous winners include truly innovative researchers from across Canada.
Eligibility
Candidates for the award may be faculty, students or alumnae
who have successfully completed a Master's or PhD degree in
a Canadian university within the previous three calendar years.
Nominations may be submitted by the university, a microelectronics
or microelectronics-related company in Canada or jointly by
a company and a university. Joint nominations are strongly
encouraged. Canadian citizens, landed immigrants or persons
who have been Canadian residents for three years prior to
the date of nomination are eligible. Nominations are not restricted
to those pursuing academic study or holding an academic appointment.
Application Requirements
A nomination must include the curriculum vitae of the nominee
and a covering letter which addresses the nominee's achievements
in research and the importance of the nominee's contributions
to the discipline and related industry. The nominators should
provide names of additional external authorities to whom reference
might be made if required. Each nomination must be
accompanied by two references, of which one must be academic.
Further Conditions and Application
Guidelines
All nominating institutions/companies should:
Previous Winners:
Dr. Reza Chaji
The 2009 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr. Chaji in recognition of his work on the development of new pixel architecture based on thin film transistors fabricated in low-cost technologies. His research has led to several novel pixel architectures and driving schemes for displays, sensors and imagers, which provide far better stability, lower power consumption, longer lifetime and higher resolution devices. Dr. Chaji's research has been the heart of the IGNIS Innovation Inc. development plan, where Dr. Chaji is Chief Scientist and Director of Technology.
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Dr. Reza Chaji (left), Chief Scientist and Director of Technology, IGNIS Innovation Inc. and graduate of the University of Waterloo received the Douglas R. Colton Medal from Dr. Ian L. McWalter (right), President & CEO, CMC Microsystems, at the 2009 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium. Dr.Chaji's work on thin film transistors has resulted in over 50 patents and several prestigious scholarships and awards.
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Dr. Daryoosh Saeedkia
The 2008 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr. Saeedkia in recognition of his research on terahertz photoconductive sources and detectors and terahertz photonics devices and systems as well as a comprehensive study of the interaction of lasers with ultra-fast photoconductors and high-temperature superconductors. His contribution to the research has led to the commercialization of terahertz photoconductive sources and detectors by T-Ray Sciences Inc. and will potentially lead to a breakthrough in the emerging areas of terahertz bio-sensing and medical imaging.
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Dr. Daryoosh Saeedkia (right), Chief Technology Officer of
T-Ray Sciences Inc. and graduate of the University of Waterloo received the Douglas R. Colton Medal from Dr. Ian L. McWalter (left), President & CEO, CMC Microsystems, at the 2008 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium. Dr. Saeedkia's research
in terahertz photoconductive sources and detectors has been designated by the University of Waterloo for Outstanding Achievement in Graduate Studies in Doctoral Level in the Faculty of Engineering, has received several Faculty of Engineering scholarships as well as a recipient of the NSERC postdoctoral fellowship.
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Dr. Behraad Bahreyni
The 2007 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr. Bahreyni in recognition of his research discoveries which demonstrate significant potential for industrial applications ranging from the design of award winning electric field sensors for monitoring electric power lines and gas piping, to better calibration of MRI systems for the health industry, to the realization of MEMS-based integrated systems for telecommunications.
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Dr. Behraad Bahreyni (right) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University. He graduated from the University of Manitoba with his PhD degree in 2006 and received the Douglas R. Colton Medal from Dr. Doug Colton (left), Director Emeritus, CMC, at the 2007 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium. Dr. Behraad Bahreyni's research has led to a number of innovations, including the creation of unique frequency-based magnetic field sensors and self-driven MEMS oscillators.
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Honourable Mention:
Dr
Amirhossein Alimohammad
The 2007 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence Honourable Mention was presented to Dr. Alimohammad of the University of Alberta in recognition for his excellent work in how novel field-programmable gate array (FPGA) applications can attract industrial interest and lead to commercialization activity.
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Dr. Amirhossein Alimohammad (right), Postdoctoral Fellow in the iCORE High Capacity Digital Communications Laboratory is awarded Honourable Mention for the 2007 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence. Dr. Alimohammad’s work has led to an award-winning business plan for a new start-up venture, as well as on-going discussions with potential licensees among major vendors where he is contributing to the design and modeling of Micro and Nano-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS/NEMS) and interfacing electronics. He received the Honourable Mention from Dr. Doug Colton (left), Director Emeritus, CMC at the 2007 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium in Ottawa, Ontario. |
Dr. David Sinton
The 2006 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr. Sinton in recognition of his successful application of microfluidics theory and experimental techniques to innovative work on new bio-medical devices and micro hydrogen fuel cells. He has developed a highly successful, productive and well funded research program, and truly established himself as a young leader in this field of research.
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Dr. David Sinton (right), Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Victoria and graduate of the University of Toronto has made many original contributions to the field of microfluidics. He has successfully applied the theory and experimental techniques of microfluidics to innovative work on developing new bio-medical devices and micro hydrogen fuel cells. He received the Douglas R. Colton Medal from Dr. Doug Colton (left), Director Emeritus, CMC at the 2006 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium in Ottawa, Ontario. |
Dr. John T. W. Yeow
The 2005 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr. Yeow in recognition of the development of micromachined-based OCT systems that could improve health care through: significant improvement in hardware performance in terms of quality image; acquisition of in-vivo images with good special resolution; minimally invasive endoscopy procedures, thereby reducing patient stress.
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Dr. John Yeow (left), Assistant Professor of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and graduate of the University of Toronto, performs research that helps to enable the effective and non-invasive diagnosis of disease, enabling earlier intervention and more accurate treatment. He received the Colton Medal from Dr. Ian McWalter (right), former CMC Microsystems Chair of the Board and previous President of Gennum Corporation at the 2005 CMC Microsystems Annual Symposium. |
Dr. Mohab Anis
Dr. Mohab Anis is a graduate of the University of Waterloo where he is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was given the Douglas R. Colton award for exemplary research and collaborations which have had a significant impact on the advancement of leakage-tolerant integrated circuits and computer-aided methodologies that are essential for the manufacturing of wireless information processing systems.
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Dr. Mohab Anis (left), Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo, receives the prestigious Colton Medal for Research Excellence from Dr. Douglas Colton (right), Director Emeritus, CMC Microsystems at MR&DCAN 2004. |
Dr. Karim S. Karim
Dr.
Karim, a Assistant Professor of the School of
Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University, and a
graduate of the
University of Waterloo, performs research into the development
of silicon semiconductor devices and circuits for large area
imaging, display and solar applications. The 2003 Douglas
R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence was awarded to Dr.
Karim in recognition of research and collaborations which
have had a significant impact on the large-scale
sensor field and helped to advance microsystems into the realm
of human health.
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Dr. Karim
Karim (right), graduate of the University of Waterloo
and Assistant Professor of the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University,
was awarded the Colton Medal in 2003 for exemplary research
and collaborations that have had a significant positive
impact on the large-scale sensor field and helped to advance
microsystems into the realm of human health. Dr. Ian McWalter
(left), President of Gennum Corporation and Chair of the
Board of CMC, presented the award to Dr. Karim in Montréal,
Québec at MR&DCAN 2003. |
Dr. Martin Dvorak
Dr.
Martin Dvorak , graduate of
Simon Fraser University , is presently an R&D Engineer
with
Agilent Technologies' Microwave Technology Center in
Santa Rosa, California, where he is contributing to the development
of high performance indium phosphide heterojunction bipolar
transistor integrated circuits (InP HBT ICs). The award was
presented in recognition of Dr. Dvorak's exemplary research
and development of the world's fastest bi-polar heterostructure
transistor (as at May 2002) and his contribution to the development
of technologies for heterostructure devices that will significantly
improve Internet transmission rates.
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Dr. Glenn Chapman
(left), Associate Professor at Simon Fraser University,
accepts the award on Dr. Dvorak's behalf at the CMC 2002
annual symposium from CMC's first President and Director
Emeritus, Dr. Douglas Colton (right). |
Dr. Duncan Elliott
The recipient of the 2001 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research
Excellence was Dr.
Duncan Elliott, a faculty member at the University
of Alberta and a graduate of the University
of Toronto . The award was presented in recognition
of Dr. Elliott's Computational
RAM work involving the integration of narrow-pitch processors
into memory to achieve high memory bandwidth. He collaborated
with both MOSAID
Technologies and Lumic
Electronics to further develop Computational RAM for
commercialization.
| Duncan
Elliott (right) receiving the 2001 D.R. Colton
Medal for Research Excellence from D.R. Colton (left),
first President of CMC. |
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Dr. Kevin Robbie
The winner of the Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence
in 2000 was Dr. Kevin Robbie. Dr. Robbie received
his doctorate from the University
of Alberta and presently holds a Canada Research Chair
at Queen's
University. He received the Colton Medal in recognition
of his investigation of a new technique for fabricating semi-porous
materials with structural control on the scale of tens of
nanometers. This technique allows materials to be fabricated
with properties that can be engineered for specific applications.
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Kevin
Robbie (centre) receiving the 2000 D.R. Colton
Medal for Research Excellence from D.R. Colton (left)
and Tony Marsh, Former President, CMC (right). |
Dr. Vaughn Betz
The recipient of the 1999 Douglas R. Colton Medal for
Research Excellence was Dr. Vaughn Betz The award
was presented in recognition of Dr. Betz's ground-breaking
work and improvements in state-of-the-art solutions relating
to architecture and CAD for speed and area optimization of
FPGAs. A graduate of the University
of Toronto , Dr. Betz now works with the Altera Toronto
Technology Center (originally Right Track CAD Corp. - a spin-off
company from the FPGA research group in the University or
Toronto's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
acquired by Altera
Corporation in May 2000).
| Vaughn
Betz (centre) accompanied by his wife, Corinne
Wolfe-Betz (right), receiving the 1999 D.R. Colton Medal
for Research Excellence from Ian McWalter (left), Chair
of the Board of Directors, CMC. |
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Dr. Steven Wilton
The 1998 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence
was awarded to Dr. Steven Wilton a faculty member
in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University
of British Columbia and a graduate of the University
of Toronto. Dr. Wilton's research into both the architecture
and CAD tools for Field-Programmable Gate Arrays with on-chip
storage significantly impacted the device design of several
leading FPGA vendors.
Dr. Daniel Massicotte
Dr.
Daniel Massicotte received the 1997 Douglas R. Colton
Medal for Research Excellence. The award was presented in
recognition of the international quality and industrial relevance
of Dr. Massicotte's research combining his work on signal
processing and the implementation of high-performance algorithms.
Dr. Massicotte is a graduate of École
Polytechnique de Montréal and now holds a faculty
position in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Université
du Québec à Trois-Rivières.
Dr. John Long
The recipient of the 1996 Douglas R. Colton Medal for Research
Excellence was Dr. John R. Long. The award was presented
in recognition of the relevance and impact of Dr. Long's research
in the field of integrating radio receiver circuits on silicon
chips. Dr. Long is a graduate of Carleton
University and a former Assistant Professor in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University
of Toronto . In 1995, Dr. Long won the valuable Canadian
Semiconductor Design Association Design Award, for his
TEXPO presentation A 1.9GHz Low-Voltage Silicon Bipolar
Receiver Front-end for Personal Communications. Dr. Long currently lives in the Netherlands and is teaching at the Delft University of Technology.
Dr. Ivars Finvers
The 1995 winner of The D.R. Colton Medal for Research Excellence
was Dr. Ivars Finvers. A graduate of and now a Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary, Dr. Finvers won the award
for his thesis research on the design, analysis and implementation
of precision operational amplifiers in a standard CMOS process
for operation at 200 degrees Celsius. Dr. Finvers was also
the winner of the 1993 Canadian Semiconductor Design Association
Design Award for his TEXPO demonstration Deep Fried
Electronics.
Dr. Steven Dew
Dr. Steven Dew was winner of the 1994 D.R. Colton
Medal for Research Excellence. A graduate of the University
of Alberta, Dr. Dew is now a Professor and Associate Dean of Research and Planning in the university's
Department
of Electrical Engineering . Dr. Dew won the award for
his thesis research on the development of a new microelectronics
process simulator called SIMBAD.
A highly successful development, SIMBAD is being marketed
by the Alberta Microelectronic Corporation. |
