WHITE PLAINS, N.Y.—The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers has announced the full slate of individuals that will be honored as part of the annual SMPTE Awards Gala set to take place during the SMPTE 2019 conference, highlighted by the organization’s Progress Medal being presented to Cristina Gomila Torres.
SMPTE’s Progress Medal recognizes outstanding technical contributions to the progress of the engineering phases of motion picture, television or motion imaging industries. Torres is being recognized for her leadership and contributions to the field, per SMPTE. She is the first woman to be recognized with the Progress Medal.
Another of SMPTE’s top honors that will be presented during the gala is a pair of Honorary Memberships to Paul Kellar and Roderick Snell. Kellar is a leading inventor of a range of technologies and products in the areas of digital video processing, digital image storage, electronic graphics creation, still-image storage and processing and image manipulation. Snell has made contributions to the industry with his more than 40 years as an author, broadcast engineer and international consultant.
Other award recipients include:
- Paul K. Weimer (1914-2005) with the Camera Origination and Imaging Medal
- Michelle Munson with the David Sarnoff Medal
- Elizabeth Daley with the Excellence in Education Medal
- Gary J. Sullivan with the Digital Processing Medal
- Ralph Sargent with the James A. Linder Archival Technology Medal
- Walter Murch with the Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal
- Anne Aaron with the Workflow Systems Medal
- Elizabeth Pieri and Jaclyn Pytlarz with the Journal Award
- Kenichiro Masaoka, Kazuyuki Arai and Yoshiro Takiguchi with the Journal Certificate of Merit
- Peter A. Dare with the Presidential Procolomation
- Paul Gardiner with the Excellence in Standards Award
- Allan Schollnick, John Wesley Shike, Rick Singer, Andrew King and John Lock with the Citation for Outstanding Service to the Society
- Oscar Eduardo Estrada Torrejon and Nicholas Peretti with the Student Paper Award
- Adam C. Burke with the Louis F. Wolf Jr. Memorial Scholarship
In addition, 15 new SMPTE Fellows will be recognized during the gala: Peter T. Adamiak, David Crawford, Patricia Keighley, Gary Mandle, Sean T. McCarthy, Michael Overton, Julian Pinn, Andrew Rayner, Jeffrey Charles Riedmiller, Michael Douglas Smith, James Patrick Snyder, John J. Turner, Brian A. Vessa and Raymond Yeung. All will be officially elevated to the Fellow position during the SMPTE 2019 Fellows Luncheon on Oct. 22.
The SMPTE Awards Gala will take place on Oct. 24 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel & Suites in downtown Los Angeles, followed by a gala and afterparty to close out the SMPTE 2019 Annual Conference. For more information, visit 2019.smpte.org/home/gala.
