Major Medals
The Giorgio Quazza Medal
This is an IFAC award to a distinguished control engineer, presented at IFAC World Congresses as a memorial to the late Giorgio Quazza, a leading Italian electrical and control engineer who served IFAC in many capacities in a most distinguished manner. The medal is awarded by the IFAC Council on the recommendation of a selection committee. A monetary prize is presented to the recipient together with the medal. Medal winners have been:
- 1981 Prof. John F. Coales (UK)
- 1984 Prof. Yakov Z. Tsypkin (RU)
- 1987 Prof. Karl J. Åström (SE)
- 1990 Prof. Petar Kokotovic (US)
- 1993 Prof. Edward J. Davison (CA)
- 1996 Prof. Alberto Isidori (IT)
- 1999 Prof. Brian D.O. Anderson (AU)
- 2002 Prof. Lennart Ljung (SE)
- 2005 Prof. Tamer Basar (US)
- 2008 Prof. Graham Goodwin (AU)
For the 2008 - 2011 triennial period, the Quazza Medal Selection Committee has the following composition: Tamer Basar (Chair), Brian D.O. Anderson, Karl J. Aström, Edward J. Davison, Graham Goodwin, Alberto Isidori, Petar Kokotovic
The Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal
The Nichols Medal recognizes outstanding contributions of an individual to design methods, software tools and instrumentation, or to significant projects resulting in major applications and advancement of control education. The spirit is captured by the name of Nathaniel Nichols, one of the pioneers of control engineering. The medal is awarded by the IFAC Council on the recommendation of a selection committee. A monetary prize is presented to the recipient together with the medal. Medal winners have been:
- 1996 Prof. Jürgen Ackermann (DE)
- 1999 Dr. Gunter Stein (US)
- 2002 Dr. Carl Nett (US)
- 2005 Dr. William F. Powers (US)
- 2008 Prof. Gerd Hirzinger (DE)
For the 2008 - 2011 triennial period, the Nichols Medal Selection Committee has the following composition:Paul van den Hof (Chair), Graham Goodwin, Karl Hedrick, Gunter Stein, Katsuhisa Furuta, Gerd Hirzinger
The Industrial Achievement Award
Established in 2000, to be first awarded at the 15th IFAC World Congress in Barcelona in 2002. This is an IFAC award to an individual, or a team of individuals, presented at IFAC World Congresses, who has made a significant contribution to industrial applications of control. The winner of the award is selected by the IFAC Council upon recommendation of a Selection Committee. A monetary prize, together with a certificate, is presented to the recipient. The first IAA winning teams were
- 2002 Kawasaki Steel Corporation & Toshiba GE Automation Systems Corporation.
- 2005 Dr. Serge Boverie (FR)
- 2008 - not awarded
For the 2008 - 2011 triennial period, the Industrial Achievement Award Selection Committee has the following composition: Rolf Isermann (Chair), Heiko Koivo, Masayoshi Tomizuka
The High Impact Paper Award
Established in 2008, to be first awarded at the 17th IFAC World Congress in Milan in 2011. This is an IFAC award to acknowledge the impact of a paper published in any of the official IFAC journals on the broad areas of Automatic Control theory and application. At most two such awards will be made in any triennium. The award(s) will be presented by the President at each IFAC Triennial Congress at the Opening Ceremony.
For the 2008 - 2011 triennial period, the High Impact Paper Award Selection Committee has the following composition: Jan C. Willems (Chair), Karl J. Aström, Thomas McAvoy, Katsuhisa Furuta, Steve Morse




