IEEE Announces 2027 Technical Field Award Recipients
Selected by the IEEE Awards Board and approved by the IEEE Board of Directors, the honorees will be celebrated.
IEEE unveils 2027 Technical Field Award recipients
- Global Recognition: The IEEE unveiled its 2027 Technical Field Award recipients on September 22, 2026, honoring advancements in medical robotics, AI, wireless communications, and microelectronics.
- Rigorous Selection: Honorees are chosen annually by the IEEE Awards Board and approved by the IEEE Board of Directors based on technical excellence and societal impact.
- Celebration Date: Award recipients will be formally recognized.
Leadership Perspectives on Engineering Innovations
“The 2027 IEEE Technical Field Award recipients embody the relentless spirit of innovation and ingenuity that defines our global community,” said Mary Ellen Randall, 2026 IEEE president and CEO, in a news release issued from Piscataway, New Jersey. Randall emphasized that across fields like artificial intelligence, medical robotics, and wireless networks, these accomplishments solve critical challenges for humanity.
Medical Robotics, Microelectronics, and Storage Honorees
The 2027 roster covers a vast spectrum of specialized engineering disciplines. In biomedical engineering, IEEE Life Fellow Kullervo Hynynen of the Sunnybrook Research Institute and the University of Toronto is honored for pioneering contributions to the development, advancement, and clinical translation of therapeutic ultrasound. Meanwhile, in data storage technology, IEEE Member Edward Charles Gage, IEEE Fellow Ganping Ju, and IEEE Fellow Jan-Ulrich Thiele of Seagate Technology in Cupertino, California, are recognized for their work on heat-assisted magnetic technology powering ultra-high-capacity hard disk drives.
In microelectronics and semiconductor process technology, IEEE Member Ann B. Kelleher, retired from Intel in Portland, Oregon, receives the Frederik Philips Award for leading the historic advancement of CMOS process technology, culminating in the first node with backside power delivery. IEEE Life Fellow Wanda Kay Gass, retired from Texas Instruments, is also recognized with the Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits for pioneering contributions to programmable digital signal processing systems.
Signal Processing, Computing, and Communications Breakthroughs
Network systems and signal processing also feature prominently among the 2027 laureates. IEEE Member Amin Vahdat of Google in Mountain View, California, receives the Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award for developing network systems that scale data centers to support modern cloud computing and machine learning. In internet traffic analysis, IEEE Fellow Matthew Roughan of Adelaide University is honored for foundational contributions to analyzing internet traffic and network structures.
Video coding standards are recognized through the Arun N. Netravali Award, awarded jointly to IEEE Life Member Jens-Rainer Ohm of RWTH Aachen University, IEEE Life Fellow Gary J. Sullivan of Dolby Laboratories, and IEEE Member Benjamin Bross of the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications Heinrich-Hertz-Institut. They are cited for leadership in developing the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) international standard.