Information about Kees A. Schouhamer Immink

Kees Schouhamer Immink

Kees Schouhamer Immink
Born	Dec. 18, 1946 Rotterdam, Netherlands
Residence	Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Field	Electronics, Information Theory
Institutions	Turing Machines Inc. Philips Research Laboratories
Alma mater	Eindhoven University of Technology
Known for	Compact Disc, DVD, Blu-ray Disc
Notable prizes	Emmy Award Edison Medal AES Gold Medal SMPTE Progress Medal

Kornelis ("Kees") Antonie Schouhamer Immink is a Dutch scientist, inventor, and entepreneur. For more than 30 years, Kees Schouhamer Immink has been involved in the development of digital recording products. His research has resulted in around 1000 foreign and US patents.

Biography

Immink was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on December 18, 1946. He received a Bachelor's degree from the Rotterdam Academy of Arts and Engineering Sciences (1967), a Masters degree in electrical engineering (1974, cum laude) and a PhD (1985) from Eindhoven University of Technology.

From 1967-1998, he was with Philips Research Laboratories, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. In 1998, he founded Turing Machines Inc, where he currently serves as its president. In addition to this he has been an adjunct professor at Institute for Experimental Mathematics, University of Duisburg and Essen, Germany, since 1994 as well as affiliated with the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Data Storage Institute, Singapore, as a Distinguished Visiting Professor since 1997.

He was a prominent member of the Philips/Sony experts group that designed the Compact Disc enshrined in the Red Book standard. Many aspects of recording systems have been influenced by Immink's research, including coding technology, electronics, servomechanism design and performance, playing behavior, system control and protection. He has been instrumental in the design and development of coding technologies of a wide variety of consumer-type video, audio, and data recorders such as

• LaserVision videodisc,
• Compact Disc (CD),
• CD-ROM,
• Compact Disc Video,
• Digital Audio Tape (R-DAT),
• Video CD (VCD),
• Digital Compact Cassette (DCC),
• Digital Versatile Disc (DVD),
• Super Audio CD (SACD),
• DVD-Audio and
• Blu-ray Disc (BD).

He removed a major obstacle of a successful introduction of the Compact Disc and other digital optical discs by inventing an efficient technique to improve playing time and disc playability EFM and EFMPlus. His techniques have found widespread application in CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray Disc systems and all their offspring. He created parts of the source code for the Compact Disc, the DVD, and Blu-ray Disc.

Awards and honors

Foreign associate, National Academy of Engineering, 2007.

SMPTE Progress Medal awarded by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), 2004, For the central role played in research and development of audio and video recording products.

IEEE Consumer Electronics Engineering Excellence Award, 2004.

Heyser Memorial lecturer awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, May 2004. [1]

Technology and Engineering Emmy Award awarded by the National Television Academy 2003, For coding technology for optical recording formats.

Inducted into the Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame, (CEA), 2003.

Knighthood in the Order of Oranje-Nassau awarded by Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands, 2000.

Honorary member, Netherlands Electronics and Radio Society (NERG), 2000.

Millennium Medal awarded by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, (IEEE), 2000.

AES Gold Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, (AES), 1999, For significant contributions to the advancement of consumer audio technology.

IEEE Edison Medal, 1999, For a career of creative contributions to the technologies of digital video, audio, and data recording.

Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation awarded by the IEEE Information Theory Society, 1998, For the invention of constrained codes for commercial recording systems.

AES 50th Anniversary Commemorative Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, 1998.

Academician, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, (KNAW) 1996.

Fellow, Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE),1996.

Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award awarded by the IEEE, 1996, For pioneering contributions to consumer digital audio and video recording products.

A.M. Poniatoff Gold Medal Award for Technical Excellence awarded by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 1994, For outstanding contributions to the development of new techniques and/or equipment that have contributed to the advancement of audio or video magnetic recording and reproduction.

Sir J.J. Thomson Medal awarded by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), 1993, For distinguished contributions to electronics.

AES Silver Medal awarded by the Audio Engineering Society, 1992, For major contributions to the development of digital audio recording systems.

References

• Codes for Mass Data Storage Systems, Second fully revised edition, Shannon Foundation Publishers, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, Nov. 2004. ISBN 90-74249-27-2 http://www.shannonfoundation.org/book.html
• The Compact Disc Story, AES Journal, pp. 458-465, May 1998 http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/cdstory.pdf.
• The future of digital audio recording, AES Journal., pp. 171-172, 1999 http://www.exp-math.uni-essen.de/~immink/pdf/future.pdf.

US Patents

• U.S. Patent 4,501,000 , EFM Patent, base code applied in Compact Disc, CD-R, MiniDisc
• U.S. Patent 5,696,505 , EFMPlus Patent, base code applied in DVD, DVD-RW, SACD

Sources

• Winners SMPTE Progress Medal
• Winners 2003 Emmy Award

External links

• IEEE Legacies
• Immink's Home page

Awards
Preceded by Rolf Landauer	IEEE Edison Medal 1999	Succeeded by Jun-Ichi Nishizawa