Awards and Certifications From August 25
First Tech Direct LLC Named To VAR 100 List By Accounting Today: Royal Oak-based First Tech Direct LLC said it had been named to the VAR 100 by Accounting Today magazine. Accounting Today recognizes the country's top 100 value-added resellers (VARs) of mid-market accounting software packages. VARs are selected based on company size, revenue, and growth from year to year, as well as the variety and value of the accounting software solutions they provide. More at www.firsttechdirect.com.
Fisher-Unitech Named To Inc. 5000: Fisher-Unitech, an engineering technology firm, has achieved number 4,894 on Inc. magazine's fourth annual Inc. 5000, an exclusive ranking of the nation's fastest-growing private companies. This is the third consecutive year Fisher-Unitech has made the list, posting an increase in revenue growth since 2006. Despite the fact that revenue figures for this year's measuring period of 2006-2009 took place during a recession, Fisher-Unitech's diversification in geography, industry and product portfolio has helped the company not only weather the economic storm but achieve growth targets as well.
Wayne State prof named American Chemical Society Fellow: James Rigby, chair of the department of chemistry at Wayne State University, was named to the American Chemical Society's 2010 class of Fellows, an honor bestowed upon distinguished scientists who have demonstrated outstanding accomplishments in chemistry. Nominated for his exceptional contributions as a scientist and educator, Rigby has had significant scientific accomplishments in organic chemistry. His current research focuses on a variety of problems directed toward the total synthesis of pharmacologically active natural products. Through discoveries made in Rigby's lab, he and a team of researchers have created new molecules and are developing novel and powerful methods that will one day aid researchers in the pharmaceutical industry to make complex drug candidates more quickly and efficiently than otherwise would be possible. "Dr. Rigby's leadership in the field of chemistry has helped build an outstanding chemistry department at Wayne State, and has contributed to the excellence of other scientists and scientific organizations throughout the nation," said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research at Wayne State. "Because of his accomplishments as a scientist and educator, he is most deserving of this prestigious recognition." Rigby has been a professor at Wayne State since 1981. He received his B.S. in chemistry with high honors from Case Western Reserve University and his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University of Wisconsin-Madison.
U-M professors win prestigious management honor: Six professors at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business who founded the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship have been named Trailblazers by the Organization and Management Theory Division of the Academy of Management. Professors Wayne Baker, Kim Cameron, Jane Dutton, Robert Quinn, Gretchen Spreitzer and Lynn Wooten received the Joanne Martin Trailblazer Award this month at the Academy of Management meetings in Montreal. The award is given every two years to "scholars who have taken a leadership role in the field of OMT by opening up new lines of thinking or inquiry. A trailblazer is a boundary-spanner and a conversation starter, someone who extends and builds the OMT community by shepherding new ideas and new scholarship, often in unconventional ways."
The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship, established in 2002, is a community of scholars devoted to energizing and transforming organizations through research on the theory and practice of positive organizing and leadership. For more information about POS, visit: www.bus.umich.edu/Positive
NCMS wins R&D award: The National Center for Manufacturing Sciences announced that its Volumetric Accuracy for Large Machine Tools project has been honored with a R&D 100 Award. VALMT, which pioneered an innovative process in volumetric error compensation for large machine tools, is the fifth R&D 100 Award NCMS has received. Widely recognized as the "Oscars of Innovation," the annual R&D 100 Awards honor excellence in high technology products. "VALMT will save ship and aircraft manufacturers millions of dollars," said NCMS vice president Chuck Ryan. "Machine tool calibrations used to take an entire week, with VALMT the same process can be performed in a day. The benefits of this technology aren't just time savings; it will allow for more accurate parts, reducing or eliminating expensive re-work during assembly." Learn More About VALMT at www.ncms.org/blog/post/10-valmtpodcast.aspx. The NCMS collaborative R&D process teamed private industry (Automated Precision Inc., The Boeing Co., Siemens Energy and Automation and MAG Cincinnati Machine LLC) and the Department of Defense (U.S. Air Force Logistics Center, Naval Foundry and Propeller Center, U.S. Navy Fleet Readiness Center East, and the U.S. Army Anniston Depot) for the VALMT project, quickly developing the groundbreaking technology affordably, and with less risk than alternative "go it alone" R&D methods. "The secret to the success of NCMS R&D is collaboration," said NCMS President & CEO Rick Jarman. "Collaboration maximizes benefits and reduces risk and cost. This award is the latest validation that the NCMS collaborative model works." Winners of the R&D 100 Awards are selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine. The publication and its online portal serve research scientists, engineers, and other technical staff members at high tech industrial companies and public and private laboratories around the world.
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