Major Awards — IFAC · International Federation of Automatic Control

The Major Awards Search committee consists of: Pramod Khargonekar (Chair), Masayuki Fujita, Lei Guo, Bozenna Pasik-Duncan, Ian Petersen, Carsten Scherer, Claire Tomlin

Giorgio Quazza Medal

The Giorgio Quazza medal recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions of a researcher and/or engineer to conceptual foundations in the field of systems and control.This IFAC award, created in 1979, is 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 presented by the President at each IFAC Triennial Congress at the Opening Ceremony. A prize is presented to the recipient together with the medal.

For the 2020 - 2023 triennial period, the Quazza Medal Selection Committee has the following composition:
Tamer Başar (Chair)
Members: Brian Anderson, Roger Brockett, Alberto Isidori, Hidenori Kimura, Francoise Lamnabhi-Lagarrigue, Maria Elena Valcher.

Winners

Year	Congress site	Winner	Country
1981	Kyoto	John F. Coales	UK
1984	Budapest	Yakov Z. Tsypkin	SU
1987	Munich	Karl J. Åström	SE
1990	Tallinn	Petar Kokotovic	US
1993	Sydney	Edward J. Davison	CA
1996	San Francisco	Alberto Isidori	IT
1999	Beijing	Brian D. O. Anderson	AU
2002	Barcelona	Lennart Ljung	SE
2005	Prague	Tamer Basar	US
2008	Seoul	Graham Goodwin	AU
2011	Milan	Hidenori Kimura	JP
2014	Cape Town	David Mayne	UK
2017	Toulouse	Roger Brockett	US
2020	Berlin	W. Murray Wonham	CA
2023	Yokohama	A. Stephen Morse For fundamental contributions to geometric control theory, adaptive and logic-based switching control, and distributed sensing and control.	US Yale University

Nathaniel B. Nichols Medal

The Nichols Medal, created in 1996, 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 engineering. 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 at the IFAC World Congress to the recipient together with the medal.

For the 2020 - 2023 triennial period, the Nichols Medal Selection Committee has the following composition:
Maria D. Di Benedetto (Chair)
Members: Jun-Ichi Imura, Alf Isaksson, Sandra Hirche, Domitilla Del Vecchio.

Winners

Year	Congress site	Winner	Country
1996	San Francisco	Jürgen Ackermann	DE
1999	Beijing	Gunther Stein	US
2002	Barcelona	Carl Nett	US
2005	Prague	William F. Powers	US
2008	Seoul	Gerd Hirzinger	DE
2011	Milan	Siva Banda	US
2014	Cape Town	Reza Moheimani	AU
2017	Toulouse	Lennart Ljung	SE
2020	Berlin	Masayoshi Tomizuka	US
2023	Yokohama	Mrdjan Jankovic For innovative fundamental contributions to the control of automotive systems.	US Ford Research and Advanced Engineering

Manfred Thoma Medal

The Manfred Thoma medal, created in 2015, recognizes outstanding contributions of a young researcher and/or engineer under the age of 40 to the field of systems and control in its widest sense. It is named after Manfred M. Thoma, a leading contributor to the field of control and to IFAC, and supporter of the careers of many young scientists. 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.

For the 2020 - 2023 triennial period, the Manfred Thoma Medal Selection Committee is composed as follows: Anu Annaswamy (Chair)
Members: Hideaki Ishii, Miroslav Krstic, Carla Seatzu, Changyun Wen.

Winners

Year	Congress site	Winner	Country
2017	Toulouse	Ming Cao	NL
2020	Berlin	Florian Dörfler	CH
2023	Yokohama	Na (Lina) Li For fundamental contributions to control of multiagent networked systems and application to biomedical and energy systems.	US Harvard University

Industrial Achievement Award

This is an IFAC award to an individual, or a team of individuals, who has made a significant contribution to industrial applications of control. The award is given in technical fields covered by IFAC. The selection is based on industrial achievements measured in terms of:

Inventions in the control area
Engineering significance of products and projects
Industrial leadership
Promotion of control technology in industry
Impact of patents
International recognition

For the 2020 - 2023 triennial period, the Industrial Achievement Award Selection Committee has the following composition:
Iven Mareels (Chair)
Members: Ankur Ganguli, Manabu Kano, Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, Silvia Mastellone, Anna Stefanopoulou.

Winners

Year	Congress site	Winner	Country
2002	Barcelona	Yasuo Ichii, Shoji Murayama and Takahiro Yamasaki	JP
2005	Prague	Serge Boverie	FR
2008	Seoul	not awarded
2011	Milan	Anton van Zanten	DE
2014	Cape Town	Giovanni Cherubini, Jens Jelitto, Mark Lantz, and Angeliki Pantazi	CH
2017	Toulouse	Francesco Borrelli, David Germann, Dejan Kihas, Daniel Pachner, Jaroslav Pekar, Greg Stewart	US/CA/CZ
2020	Berlin	Francis J. Doyle III	US
2023	Yokohama	Reza Moheimani For control developments in support of the fabrication of quantum silicon devices at the single atom scale.	US University of Texas at Dallas

High Impact Paper Award

This IFAC Award was introduced in 2009 and first awarded in 2011. It acknowledges the impact of a paper published in any of the official IFAC journals on the broad areas of Automatic Control theory and application. A monetary prize is presented to the recipient together with a plaque.

For the 2020 - 2023 triennial period, the High Impact Paper Award Selection Committee has the following composition:
Carlos Canudas-de-Wit (Chair)
Members: Antonella Ferrara, Li-Chen Fu, Miroslav Krstic, Natalia Lopez, Rodolphe Sepulchre, Jeff S. Shamma.

Winners

Year	Congress site	Winner	Country
2011	Milan	David Mayne, J.B. Rawlings, C.V. Rao, P.O.M. Scokaert paper: "Constrained Model Predictive Control: Stability and Optimality", published in the IFAC Journal Automatica, vol. 36, pp 789-814, 2000.	UK, US, BE
2014	Cape Town	Alberto Bemporad and Manfred Morari paper: "Control of systems integrating logic, dynamics and constraints", published in the IFAC Journal Automatica, vol. 35, pp 407-427, 1999.	IT, CH
2017	Toulouse	Franco Blanchini paper: "Set Invariance in Control", published in the IFAC Journal Automatica, vol. 35, no. 11, 1999.	IT
2020	Berlin	Wilson J. Rugh and Jeff S. Shamma paper: "Research on gain scheduling", Automatica, Vol. 36, pp. 1401-1425, 2000.	US, SA
2023	Yokohama	M.V. Kothare, V. Balakrishnan, M. Morari paper: “Robust constrained model predictive control using linear matrix inequalities”, Automatica, vol 32 (10), pp. 1361-1379, Oct 1996.	US, US, CH