2001 William Wildhack Award Winner
Dr.
Clark
Hamilton
Dr. Clark Hamilton, of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, in Boulder, Colorado (retired), has received the 2001 William Wildhack Award from the NCSL International.
While Hamilton's award recognized a lifetime of scientific achievement, it was his significant efforts on the intrinsic voltage standard, the Josephson Array (predicted by Brian Josephson in 1962) that earned Hamilton our organization's highest recognition.
Fittingly, the award was presented by the son of William Wildhack, Sr., the NBS manager, for whom the award was named. It is presented annually to recognize outstanding contributions to the field of metrology and measurement science, consistent with the goals of NCSLI.
The Wildhack Award was established in 1970 in honor and recognition of William Wildhack, Sr., a long-time employee of the U.S. National Bureau of Standards, now the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Wildhack was not only very instrumental in the founding of the NCSLI, but also, through his wisdom, his leadership, his dedication and foresight, he helped shape the organization during its early formative years. The award carries an honorarium and includes a bronze and silver medallion bearing the likeness of Wildhack. This year's recipient is the 26th individual to be so honored.
Dr. Hamilton has achieved international recognition for his exhaustive work on the Josephson Array Voltage Standards. He joined the staff at NIST in 1971, and became an NIST Fellow in 1987. Previous to the Wildhack, he has received many other honors. In 1976, he was awarded the IR100 for infrared detectors, and in 1987, for the Josephson Arrays. He received two U.S. Dept. of Commerce Gold Medal Awards for his work on superconducting ICs, using Josephson devices, and many more.
In 1995, he was inducted into the IEEE Fellow ranks, and received their Electrotechnology Transfer Award. He has authored 71 publications and holds 5 patents. Editor's Note: One might wonder when he had time to work on the array technology?
Since his retirement from NIST, Hamilton's wife, Susan, assists him in the operations of their Josephson-based company, VMetrix. They also enjoy common hobbies of hiking and skiing in the mountains of Colorado. They have two children, Christina, 25, who is a graduate student in education at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO, and son, Sander, 22, who is a senior at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania
THE WILDHACK 2001 CITATION
Dave Abell
I'll get to introducing our honored guests on the podium in a minute, but first, I've got a pop-quiz for you.
What do the Cosmic Explorer Satellite, the cell phone in your pocket and the California power crisis all have in common with our 2001 Wildhack Award honoree?
The Cosmic Explorer Satellite determined that the cosmic microwave background spectrum is that of a nearly perfect blackbody. This observation matches the predictions of the hot Big Bang theory extraordinarily well, leading to its acceptance and strong support. The satellite and its delivery into orbit relied on highly accurate traceable measurements.
The cell phone in your pocket wouldn't work reliably with base station systems unless its power and frequency transmission characteristics were precisely calibrated—once again to traceable parameters.
 And that California energy crisis, those of us who paid the bills hope that the measurement of the megawatts transferred were made accurately. Energy costs are calculated based on instruments with traceable parameters.
Well, the common thread in all of these examples is that they undoubtedly relied on traceable precise DC measurements at some point. Among other things, our award recipient has made significant contributions to the measurement of DC voltage in his professional career. William Wildhack, Sr., would be very proud of our choice to receive this high honor in his name.
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2002 Wildhack Award Winner
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