The IEEE is awarding Ken Wise the 1999 Solid-State Circuits Field award for pioneering contributions to the development of solid-state sensors, circuits and integrated sensing systems.

Kensall D. Wise pioneered the application of solid-state circuits to integrated sensors, MEMS, and microsystems. This work included the first monolithic integration of readout electronics on solid-state pressure sensors, the use of built-in self-test in integrated sensors, the application of differential charge integrators to the readout of capacitive sensors, the development of fully-implantable signal conditioning circuitry for microelectrode arrays (including chip/wafer-level packaging), and seminal work on digital compensation and bus standards for integrated sensors. These areas are important parts of an expanding world-wide activity in integrated microsystems. This work included the first monolithic integration of readout electronics on solid-state pressure sensors, the use of built-in self-test in integrated sensors, the application of differential charge integrators to the readout of capacitive sensors, the development of fully-implantable signal conditioning circuitry for microelectrode arrays (including chip/wafer-level packaging), and seminal work on digital compensation and bus standards for integrated sensors. These areas today are important parts of an expanding worldwide activity in integrated microsystems.

Dr. Wise organized and served as the first chairman of the Technical Subcommittee on Solid-State Sensors of the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS). He served as General Chairman of the 1984 IEEE Solid-State Sensors and Actuators, and as IEEE-EDS National Lecturer for 1986. He has also served on National Lecturer for 1986. He has also served on program committees for the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) and the International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM). He received Outstanding Paper Awards from the ISSCC in 1971 and 1979. He was General Chairman of the 1997 IEEE International Conference on Solid-State Sensors and Actuators (Transducers '91). Dr. Wise has also received the Paul Rappaport Award from the EDS (1990), a Distinguished Faculty Achievement Award from the University of Michigan (1995), the Columbus Prize from the Christopher Columbus Fellowship Foundation (1996), and the SRC Aristotle Award (1997). He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the AIMBE.

Dr. Wise received the BSEE degree with highest distinction from Purdue University in 1963 and the MS and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1964 and 1969, respectively. From 1963 to 1965 (on leave 1965-1969) and from 1972 to 1974, he was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories, where his work was concerned with the exploratory development of integrated electronics for use in telephone communications. From 1965 to 1972 he was Research Assistant and then a Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Stanford, working on the development of integrated circuit technology and its application to solid-state sensors. In 1974 he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he is now the J. Reid and Polly Anderson Professor of Manufacturing Technology and Director of the Center for Integrated Sensors and Circuits. His present research interests focus on the development of solid-state sensors and micropower circuits for applications in health care, environmental monitoring, and process control.