Wolfram Innovator Award 2013

Wolfram technologies have long been a major force in many areas of industry and research. Leaders in many top organizations and institutions have played a major role in using computational intelligence and pushing the boundaries of how the Wolfram technology stack is leveraged for innovation across fields and disciplines.

We recognize these deserving recipients with the Wolfram Innovator Award, which is awarded at the Wolfram Technology Conferences around the world.

Tom Meyer

Areas: Education, Geographic Information Systems

As a developer of Mathematica’s Geodesy package, Thomas Meyer has pioneered the use of Mathematica in geodesy and geographic information systems (GIS) throughout his career at the University of Connecticut. Meyer has published eight papers in two years in which Mathematica was used to conduct research. One paper, “The Direct and Indirect Problem for Loxodromes,” provides the mathematics of how to write an autopilot using a GPS to lay out the course, correctly using modern geodetic reference ellipsoids. Meyer also uses Mathematica in teaching a range of courses from geomatics and GNSS surveying to spatial statistics and programming.

Bart ter Haar Romeny

Areas: Biotechnology, Image Processing, Mathematics

A professor in biomedical image analysis, Bart ter Haar Romeny uses Mathematica to design brain-inspired image analysis methods for computer-aided diagnosis. He is an enthusiastic teacher, and introduced Mathematica as a design tool in the curriculum for all students of his department and in most projects in his group. He advocates that Mathematica is ideal for designing innovative algorithms and for “playing with the math.” His PhD students van Almsick, Duits, Franken, (now Professor) Florack, Janssen, and Bekkers substantially contributed to the Mathematica packages on brain-inspired computing. He cochaired with Markus van Almsick the International Mathematica Symposium 2008 in Maastricht and teaches a popular national course on biologically inspired computing (book written in Mathematica), which was thrice awarded the BME Teaching Award.