IBM Retiree Wins Award from Engineers Society

Robert E. Simons was named the 2011 winner of the Allan D. Kraus Thermal Management Medal given recently by the committee that manages the annual award for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Simons is a retired IBM senior technical staff member who has had a 45-year career in the management of heat in electronics and holds more than 130 patents. He joined IBM in 1966 and began pioneering research on the use of direct liquid cooling in electronic packaging. He did part of the design of IBM’s 3081 and System/390 computer lines. He was elected to IBM’s Academy of Technology in 1991 and retired in 1993, but is still consulting at IBM’s Advanced Thermal Laboratory, where he is involved in data center cooling studies. Simons has lectured on the topic, has published nearly 70 papers or articles, has written 11 book chapters, and has won many honors. He and his wife, Miriam, were born and raised in Poughkeepsie. He was a graduate of the first class of engineers at Dutchess Community College and received a bachelor’s degree from Widener and a master’s degree at Union College.