Amos Edward Joel Jr., a retired executive consultant at AT&T Bell Laboratories, will receive the Kyoto Prize for his contributions in advanced technology. Joel, 71, developed the electronic switching system, the key to the United States' public communications network. This system made possible the automatic announcement of telephone number changes and the continuity of cellular phone connections for cars traveling long distances. In addition to his own research on electronic switching, Joel encouraged an international exchange and diffusion of research on switching technology, proposing the establishment of the International Switching Symposium (ISS). Joel, now affectionately known to his colleagues as "Mr. Switching," was honored in 1987 as the "father of ISS."
Soviet mathematician Izrail Moiseevieh Geifand, 75, this year's Kyoto Laureate in Basic Sciences, is best known for his work in functional analysis, the algebraic study of infinite dimensional spaces of functions, which has provided valuable mathematical tools for elementary ...
