At long last, the 66th not so annual Long Island Section Awards Banquet took place at the Crest Hollow Country Club on Thursday, March 31. It was exciting to actually meet colleagues and friends in person again. Attendance was surprisingly robust, given the fear of the small but not yet zero prevalence of Covid-19. Awards were presented by IEEE-USA president-elect Ed Palacio to recipients of awardees from last year and two years ago in a combined ceremony. The keynote speaker, Michiko Minty, gave a thorough introduction to the purpose and development of the Electron-Ion Collider to be built at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Rhonda Green and the rest of the Awards Banquet Committee did a magnificent job pulling off a task that was always under threat of cancellation up until the penultimate month. I would like to single out a newly created award, the Jesse Taub Lifetime Achievement Award, named in honor of Jesse Taub for his tremendous contribution to the Section’s operations as historian and Awards Committee chairman. Deservedly so, Victor Zourides was this year’s recipient.

This banquet was also the first to be a hybrid event, with a WebEx stream available at a much reduced fee. Although the Webex came off without a hitch, we did learn that the remote viewers could only watch a static image of the podium for one and a half hours as the in-person attendees enjoyed cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Next year, the stream will start at 7:00 pm as the presentations begin. Next in the news is the reconstituted status of PACE, the Professional Activities Committee for Engineers. Mimi Tam, the Region 1 PACE Coordinator, issued a request that the Region 1 Sections nominate a chair for their Section PACE effort and Sai Padmanabhan has stepped up and volunteered to be the Section PACE chair. There will be funds available to the section for activities related to its mission, which was being debated at the first meeting and will continue in subsequent meetings.

Finally, keep in mind that the situation in Ukraine is still dire. Even though the Russian invasion has stalled in the face of heroic resistance by Ukrainian forces, there is still a call for worldwide support of the Ukrainian people. The IEEE Ukraine site says it all. Lastly, everyone please stay healthy and let’s hope for a quick return to normalcy.

Arnold Stillman
IEEE Long Island Section Chair, 2022

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