by Maira Marques Samary, Past Chair Boston Section

On Sunday, March 16th, the 2025 Boston Section Awards Ceremony took place at Tufts University’s Joyce Cummings Center. This gathering was long overdue, since before the pandemic, the IEEE Boston Section had not held a ceremony to celebrate the accomplishments and contributions of its members and volunteers. As one of the largest IEEE sections, Boston is home to many distinguished Fellows and award recipients who deserve recognition.

Restoring a Boston Section-wide awards ceremony had been one of my goals as a section officer, and I am thrilled to see it return and be as successful as it was.

Recognizing the Power of Volunteers

Volunteers are the backbone of IEEE. They generously contribute their time, knowledge, and expertise to advance technology and humanity for a better future. While they receive no monetary compensation, we as a community can express our gratitude through recognition. An awards ceremony is an opportunity to highlight outstanding contributions, showing honorees the significance of their work while inspiring others to aspire toward similar achievements.

Awards are rare moments when we honor dedication and commitment to something greater than ourselves. They serve as a reminder that we can achieve more together. To that end, the Boston Section grants individual awards to extraordinary volunteers and chapter awards to groups making a meaningful impact.

Event Highlights

The ceremony gathered more than 80 attendees and began with my passing of the gavel, as 2024 Boston Section Chair, to Karen Panetta, the 2025 Chair. A particularly moving moment was the recognition of Dr. Arthur Winston, whose leadership helped shape both the IEEE Boston Section and IEEE globally as a past president. In his honor, the section created the Arthur Winston Student Award, celebrating his lifelong dedication to mentoring and uplifting students. Attendees included Pam Hoffman, Matthew Winston, and Leslie Winston, Dr. Winston’s children. We were also honored to welcome distinguished guests, including: Bala Prasanna, IEEE Region 1 Director, Charles Rubenstein, IEEE Region 1 Director-Elect and Fred Schindler.

Pictured: Past Chair, Maira Marques Samary and Current Chair Karen Panetta

IEEE FELLOWS — Honoring Excellence

We celebrated our 2024 and 2025 IEEE Fellows, a distinction reserved for select IEEE members whose extraordinary accomplishments merit this prestigious elevation.

Stefano Di Cairano – Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories
“For contributions to model predictive and constrained control in automotive and aerospace applications.” 2025

Roozbeh Jafari – MIT: “For contributions to sensors and systems for digital health paradigms” 2025

Thomas L. Szabo – Boston University: “For contributions to ultrasound education and establishing technical standards” 2024

Dong Tian – InterDigital: “For contributions to 3D video compression, processing, and analysis” 2025

William D. Oliver – Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “For contributions to superconductive quantum com- putting technology and its teaching” 2025

Dirk R Englund Massachusetts, Institute of Technology: “For contributions to semiconductor quantum photonics and machine learning” 2024

Josep Miquel Jornet, Boston MA: For contributions in terahertz communication and nanonetworking” 2024

Jonathan Le Roux, MERL Cambridge MA: “For contributions to multi-source speech and audio processing” 2024

Marko Loncar, Harvard University Cambridge MA: “For contributions to thin film lithium nanophotonics” 2024

Yue Lu Winchester MA: “For contributions to multidimensional signal processing” 2024

Yury Polyanskiy MIT Cambridge MA: “For contributions to information measures and finite-blocklength information theory” 2024

IEEE MEDAL RECIPIENTS

We also recognized IEEE Medal recipients, awarded for exceptional contributions or distinguished careers in IEEE fields of interest.

2024 IEEE Edison Medal

For a career of meritorious achievement in electrical science, electrical engineering, or the electrical arts.

Vincent Wai Sum Chan: “For pioneering technical contributions and leadership in the fields of space and terrestrial optical communications and networks”

2024 IEEE William E Newell Power Electronics Award 

For outstanding contributions to power electronics: David J. Perreault “For contributions to the development of very-high-frequency power converters”

2024 IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications 

For outstanding accomplishments in advancing the fields of radar technologies and their applications: Fred Daum “For research, design, development, analysis, and testing of complex phased array radar systems, making them work in the real world”

2025 IEEE Robotics and Automation Technical Field Award 

For contributions in the field of robotics and automation: Marc Raibert “For pioneering and leading the field of dynamic legged locomotion.”   

REGION 1 AND BOSTON SECTION AWARDS

Additionally, we celebrated the Region 1 Award recipients and the Boston Section Award recipients, who were nominated by peers for their contributions to IEEE and their respective professions

REGION 1 AWARD RECIPIENTS

2019 IEEE Region 1 Managerial Excellence in an Engineering Organization Award

Francesca Scire Scapuzzo: “For Starting a Bold Revolution in the Defense and Aerospace Industry in the USA”

2023 IEEE Region 1 Enhancement of the IEEE Engineering Profession’s Image with the Public Award

Sampathkumar Veeraraghavan: “For Exemplary Leadership in IEEE Global Humanitarian Activities”