The first Lawrence D. Eicher Leadership Award for excellence in creative and innovative standards development was presented at the recently concluded ISO General Assembly in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Speaking to a worldwide gathering of ISO's officers and national delegates, Oliver Smoot, President of ISO, granted the prestigious award to ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information Technology, SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information.
The Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), ISO member for Japan, is the secretariat of the subcommittee, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Hiroshi Watanabe. The subcommittee, in which 27 countries participate, with another 14 as observers, is responsible for the development of such highly successful standards as MPEG, JPEG and JBIG.
"When you open your computer, there is every chance that all the audio and video applications you use are based on standards that have been developed by this subcommittee, and thus, discreet and unseen, the whole world can be grateful to their work," said Oliver Smoot, when presenting the Award to the subcommittee Secretary, Ms. Yukiko Ogura.
The recommendation to honour ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29 was made by ISO's Technical Management Board in view of the subcommittee's outstanding performance and innovative and efficient approaches in the management of its work and its contribution to the dissemination of practices of excellence to other committees.
In presenting the Award, Oliver Smoot praised the recipient as "a front line IT committee that develops standards from R&D in the multimedia environment."
"May we sincerely congratulate ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information, its chair, its secretariat and all the delegates and participants who have helped to create the synergies and build a team that works efficiently, effectively, and harmoniously with a view to developing the right documents for a volatile and fast-moving IT world in great need of good, timely, and reliable International Standards."
The Lawrence D. Eicher Leadership Award was set up in 2002 by ISO Council to honour the memory of the late Dr. Lawrence D. Eicher, ISO Secretary-General from 1986 to 2002. The Leadership Award is to be presented at the ISO General Assembly every year to ISO technical committees and subcommittees.