[SatNews] The Satellite Interference Reduction Group (IRG) presented a number of awards at its recent Annual Workshop in Singapore.
 
The awards were aimed at recognizing significant contribution towards interference mitigation by individuals and companies. IRG also awarded the best presenters, as voted for by participants at the workshop.
 
Dr. Albert “Buzz” Merrill of the Aerospace Corporation was awarded for his lifetime dedication to reducing satellite interference and to IRG. Buzz has attended IRG events for many years and has added significant ideas and debate to the group, leading to the formulation of new initiatives.
 
Another long-term contribution award was presented to Nigel Smith of the MITRE Corporation, who has been active within the group and the fight against satellite interference since the mid-90s.
 
Steve Smith, SES, also received an award for his hard-working contribution through his Directorship and dedication to IRG activities.
 
IRG recognized the effort and valuable contribution by three companies in achieving the DVB standard for Carrier ID, namely Lisa Hobbs of Ericsson, Fred Morris of Comtech EF Data Corp. and Thomas Van den Driessche of Newtec. Their awards will be presented at IBC.
 
“All of our initiatives only succeed with the hard work and dedication of the industry as a whole and it is often key individuals who make a real difference,” said Martin Coleman, Executive Director, the Satellite Interference Reduction Group. “We wanted to give some of those the recognition they deserve, but there are many others who are also working tirelessly to reduce satellite interference and we hope to now make the awards an annual event. Our workshop was, once again, filled with numerous professional and informative presentations, all of which were deserving of awards.”
 
This year, the participants voted for their favorites and awards were presented to Russ Hogan of SES and Andreas Voigt of Eutelsat for a joint presentation on the impact, identification, and resolution of radar interference; and Mustafa Al-Mahdi of ArabSat and Yoshi Ogawa of JSAT, IRG’s latest member, for presentations on regional interference events and their resolution processes. Marlon Guintu of ABS also received an award for his enthusiastic participation throughout the Workshop.

The IRG infosite is viewable at http://www.satirg.org/