Hamilton wins 2005 IEEE Joseph F Keithley Award

The IEEE has named Dr Clark A Hamilton as the recipient of the 2005 IEEE Joseph F Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement.

The IEEE has named Dr Clark A Hamilton as the recipient of the 2005 IEEE Joseph F Keithley Award in Instrumentation and Measurement.

Hamilton, President and CEO of VMetrix in Boulder, Colorado, is being recognised for making the DC Josephson junction array voltage standard a practical reality.

His work has revolutionised the field of voltage calibration by bringing faster and more accurate voltage standard systems into the labs of end users.

The award, sponsored by Keithley Instruments in memory of the company's founder, is presented for outstanding contributions in the field of electrical measurement.

It consists of a bronze medal, a certificate, and an honorarium.

Through Hamilton's work, the Josephson junction array voltage standard became a robust superconductor integrated circuit containing about 20,000 Josephson junctions and remains the most complex superconducting circuit in practical use today.

More recently, Hamilton has pursued a radically different AC Josephson voltage standard that is driven by a string of pulses, rather than by the precision frequency used for DC standards.

A Fellow of the IEEE and NIST, Dr Hamilton's numerous honours include the IEEE-USA Electrotechnology Transfer Award, two US Department of Commerce Gold Medals, and the National Conference of Standards Laboratories International William A Wildhack Award.

Criteria considered by the award's IEEE Evaluation Committee include innovation or development, social value, uniqueness of concept, other technical accomplishments and the quality of the nomination.

The award is administered through the Technical Field Awards Council of the IEEE Awards Board and is independent of Keithley Instruments.

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