The award was presented on Tuesday, November 13 as part of the IET’s prestigious Ambition and Achievement Awards at a ceremony at the Marriott Grosvenor Hotel, London. An expanded version of the ceremony citation is below.
14 November 2007
Prof. Ralph Benjamin at the IET Achievements Awards
The award was presented on Tuesday, November 13 as part of the IET’s prestigious Ambition and Achievement Awards at a ceremony at the Marriott Grosvenor Hotel, London. An expanded version of the ceremony citation is below.
Professor Ralph Benjamin, CB received a BSc, PhD and DSc from London University, and he holds an honorary D.Eng. from Bristol. He served in the Royal Naval Scientific Service as Chief of Research, Admiralty Surface-Weapons Establishment, then Director and Chief Scientist, Admiralty Underwater-Weapons Establishment. He then became Superintending Director and Chief Scientist, GCHQ and R&D Co-ordinator for the Intelligence Services. On retirement, he served as Head of Communications Techniques and Networks, NATO (SHAPE Technical Centre).
He is now a consultant to Government and Industry, and visiting professor at Imperial and University Colleges, London, and University of Bristol, originating and co-supervising research projects. As a Fellow of the IET he has served on its Council and Electronics Board, and as area and regional chairman. He is a Fellow of City and Guilds of London Institute and the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He has now received the Oliver Lodge medal of the IET in recognition of his germinal contributions to IT, in creating the first integrated Electronic Command-and-Control Information and Resource Allocation system, initially applied to the co-ordinated air defence of a naval task force. In this connection he created, in 1946, the first "mouse"-controlled cursor two-way interface between a 2D display and a store of digital data, and the first digital data network, both patented in 1947. The resulting system of systems was first deployed at sea, with outstanding success, in 1957. His concept still forms the basis of military command-and control and civil air sea and land traffic-control systems world wide, and his resource-allocation strategies have also become a world standard.
Prior to this award, he had received the Marconi Premium, the Heinrich Hertz Premium (twice) and the Clark Maxwell Premium and, last year, his work with Bristol University and now with its spin-out company MICRIMA, on the microwave detection of breast cancers, was recognised by the 2006 Achievement Award for Innovation in Electronics.
View the official IET press release