Abstract
Engelberger Receives Beckman Award
At this past LabAutomation '97 Conference the Beckman award was presented to Joseph F. Engelberger. This award, now in its second year, is presented annually to outstanding individuals who have shown themselves to be innovative and inventive pioneers in the field of robotics.
Mr. Engelberger began his career in robotics by founding Unimation, the world's first industrial robotics company. After more than a decade at Unimation, Mr. Engelberger drew on his experience to pen “Robotics in Practice” (1980), which remains in print to this day. One year after Unimation was sold to Westinghouse in 1983, Mr. Engelberger founded Transitions Research Corporation, a research and development company. Five years later, Mr. Engelberger again wrote a book, “Robots in Service,” (1989), which has been sold in the USA and Great Britain.
Widely considered the father of modern industrial robotics, Mr. Engelberger currently is the Chairman of the Board of HelpMate Inc. Currently there are over 90 HelpMates in service in the USA and abroad. They are installed in over 50 hospitals in the USA.
Joseph Engelberger has received numerous awards, including the 1995 Distinguished Service Award from Connecticut Innovations, Inc., the Progress Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, the Leonardo da Vinci Award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the 1982 American Machinists Award.
Beckman Instruments, the sponsor of the award, creates products used in laboratories for biological analysis in all phases, from pioneering medical research through drug discovery to clinical diagnostics.
Beckman operates on a worldwide basis, with half of their sales generated outside the United States. Beckman operates in more than 120 countries, with approximately 6,200 employees worldwide.