2021 ICNIRS Karl Norris Award
The Karl Norris Award honours the unique contribution of Karl Norris as the internationally recognized founder of near infrared spectroscopy in the modern world. In contrast to the Tomas Hirshfeld Award, which is aimed at younger researchers, this award is aimed at researchers in the later stages of their career, with a sustained record of important contributions to near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy.
The selection of the KNA winner is done by ICNIRS President Advisory Committee.
The winner for 2021 is Prof. Yukihiro Ozaki from Japan. Prof. Yukihiro Ozaki obtained his Ph.D. (1978) from Osaka university. Since 1993, he was a professor in School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. Ozaki is a professor emeritus and a university fellow, Kwansei Gakuin University, a guest fellow of TOYOTA Physical and Chemical Research Institute, Kobe University, and Fukui University and a guest principal researcher of RIKEN.
Ozaki has been internationally very active in research and education of spectroscopy, physical chemistry, and analytical chemistry for the last four decades. He is a fellow of Society for Applied Spectroscopy (since 2010), Royal Society of Chemistry (since 2015), The Chemical Society of Japan (since 2016), and International Council of Near-infrared Spectroscopy (since 2017).
Ozaki’s research program has been concerned with basic studies and applications of various spectroscopy, particularly NIR spectroscopy. His NIR spectroscopy studies involve almost its whole range; (1) developments of NIR spectrometers (e.g., a portable NIR imaging system), (2) proposal of novel spectral analysis methods such as chemometrics (e.g. moving-window PLS), two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy, and anharmonic quantum chemical calculations, and (3) a variety of applications from basic molecular science (e.g. hydrogen bonding studies) to practical applications such as biomedical applications, PAT, applications to pharmaceutical engineering, food science and technology, polymers, and bioimaging.
Ozaki received many awards including the 1998 Tomas Hirschfeld Award, the 2001 EAS Award for Achievements in Near Infrared Spectroscopy, Gerald Birth Award of International Conference Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy,　Bomem-Michelson Award (2014). The Chemical Society of Japan Award (2017). The Medal with Purple Ribbon from Japanese Emperor (2018). Pittsburg Spectroscopy Award (2019).
2019 ICNIRS Karl Norris Award
The Karl Norris Award honours the unique contribution of Karl Norris as the internationally recognized founder of near infrared spectroscopy in the modern world. In contrast to the Tomas Hirshfeld Award, which is aimed at younger researchers, this award is aimed at researchers in the later stages of their career, with a sustained record of important contributions to near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy.
The selection of the KNA winner is done by ICNIRS President Advisory Committee.
The winner for 2019 is Dr. Graeme Batten from Australia. Dr. Batten started his NIR career working for New South Wales (NSW) Agriculture, Yanco, Australia. He and his team were pioneers in developing NIR technology for rice and other cereal grains. He had been working intensively on using NIR on precision agriculture since 2000.
As Editor-in-Chief of JNIRS for 14 years from 2004, Graeme has dedicated body and soul to the continuing success of our journal. His feedback and teaching has helped many scientists around the world to get a successful paper published. ICNIRS warmly congratulates Graeme for his achievements and as the worthy winner of KNA 2019.
2017 ICNIRS Karl Norris Award
This award honours the unique contribution of Karl Norris as the internationally recognised founder of near infrared spectroscopy in the modern world. The award may be presented to one individual every two years at an ICNIRS Conference, and is in recognition of a major contribution to NIR science by a senior scientist.
The winner of 2017 Karl Norris Award is Pierre Dardenne from Belgium.
Pierre had been working for a very long period on NIR spectroscopy as the Head of the Department of Valorisation of Agricultural Products at the Walloon Agricultural Research Centre, Gembloux, Belgium. Despite being a native of a very small country, the impact of his impressive work in the science and application of NIR spectroscopy, especially in agriculture, is obvious in a host of countries throughout the world. Over the ensuing 30 years, he has been at the forefront of advances in NIR science, including instrument standardisation, calibration methods and mathematical procedures for processing spectral data. Pierre is the author or co-author of more than 850 publications, including peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, reports and lectures. His laboratory is a recognised centre of excellence in NIR science, where almost every type of NIR instrument and software package developed over the last 30 years has been evaluated at the request of instrument manufacturers. He is in frequent demand in countries all over the world for his advice and expertise on NIR developments and applications.
Pierre has a unique ability, not only in advancing NIR methodology and pioneering new applications, but in making the technique work in industry. At least one major international business providing NIR analysis is directly founded upon his research and development work. He has also either led or participated in various important collaborative projects in the European Union, involving both NIR spectroscopy and imaging techniques, dealing with feed and food safety and authenticity.
2015 ICNIRS Karl Norris Award
The winner of the Karl Norris Award for 2015 is Dr Phil Williams from Canada. Phil is an original pioneer of the application of NIR spectroscopy to the practical issues around predicting protein content in wheat during his time at the Canadian Wheat Board; his efforts during this time helped to lay down the optimum strategies for proper calibration development and validation thus paving the way for the ready acceptance of this technique as part of a payment system. His research into the importance of sampling and reference analytical accuracy and precision helped to form the basis for effective model development and evaluation.
2014 Inaugural ICNIRS Karl Norris Award
The new ICNIRS award, which recognises the unique contribution of Karl Norris as the founder of near infrared spectroscopy in the modern world, was unveiled at the recent International Diffuse Reflectance Conference (IDRC) in Chambersburg.
It was felt highly appropriate to present the inaugural Norris Medal (but excluding the monetary award) to Karl Norris himself, and all delegates were thrilled that Karl, accompanied by his wife Maxine, was able to receive the award in person at what he has always called his “favourite meeting”.
The Medal was presented to Karl by ICNIRS Chair Ana Garrido-Varo during a special session covering the history of NIR. This presentation was a fitting tribute to a remarkable scientist, now 93 years old.
Updated : 15 April 2019