KTH awards Gold Medal in Industrial Systems Engineering
An annual prize, the KTH Gold Medal in Industrial Systems Engineering, has been established in order to draw attention to this subject and to reward valuable contributions to this field of study. This year the medal has been won by Johan Schubert, PhD who has been responsible for long and successful industrial professional contributions to this area.
Industrial systems engineering covers methods and technologies that help to develop, manufacture, operate and maintain industrial plant and systems profitably.
Several of Sweden’s most important export companies are systems and machinery suppliers or companies that are dependent on advanced production systems. Industrial systems engineering is also of fundamental importance to companies operating on the domestic market.
“Swedish industry is of world class, both as supplier and user of complex industrial systems and machinery. In order to maintain and further strengthen this position it is absolutely vital that we focus on relevant education and research within this field,” says Torsten Cegrell, Professor of Industrial Information and Control Systems at KTH and the person who took the initiative to the establishment of this prize.
He feels that this has become even more important as the business picture is changing so rapidly and the IT systems elements of both products and machinery are growing and evolving.
This year’s winner, Johan Schubert, graduated with a Master’s from KTH and a Doctorate from Chalmers University of Technology. He has spent his entire professional career within Swedish industry; the first 15 years at ASEA/ABB in Västerås and then approximately the same period of time at Ericsson in Gothenburg. For some time now he has been working at CapGemini, a management and IT consultancy company in Gothenburg.
Johan Schubert has always worked with complex, advanced IT systems for industrial machinery and plant, for example operations centres for electricity power systems, nuclear power and telecom and management systems.
According to the motivation for the award he possesses an exceptional ability to recognise overall structures and contexts and can then create technical solutions to apparently impossible problems.
Johan Schubert has often been involved in joint industry/university research projects and has also been used on a regular basis as a guest lecturer in the academic world. Thus he is a brilliant example of a successful industrial collaborator, a group of people who are vital to the development of the industrial systems engineering field, states the award motivation.
The prize, which consists of a gold medal, will be presented at the KTH professorial inauguration ceremony on 21 November 2008 at Stockholm City Hall.
Christer Gummeson