Lifetime Achievement Award for Jim McFarlane

"Jim's underwater-oriented technical contributions to Canada and the world are almost beyond compare." says David Parkes, Chief Executive Officer, DCBC. "In just one field of underwater work, Jim has been part of engineering teams that have designed and built over 400 robotic manipulators and over 200 vehicles."

Dr. McFarlane started ISE in 1974 and has been involved with the design, construction, and operation of manned, tethered and untethered Remotely Operated Vehicles as well as subsystems of these vehicles including manipulators and computer control systems. In 2009, ISE was inducted into the Offshore Energy Center Hall of Fame and was also named as one of Canada's top 40 defence companies.

Dr. McFarlane is the author of many papers on submarines, manned submersibles, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), including the world's first automobile refueling system for Shell. He has also made keynote presentations in Europe, India, Japan, China, Korea, USA and Canada. Two notable presentations include the inauguration of the India Chapter of IEEE, Oceanic Engineering Society at the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) in 2008, and most recently at the Institute of Industrial Science, at The University of Tokyo in 2010.

Dr. McFarlane has served on many committees for international meetings and has been honoured as guest speaker at many conferences around the globe. He has also received numerous awards including the Officer of the Order of Canada, BC Science Council Award for Industrial innovation, the BC Science and Engineering Gold Medal, and the IEEE Vancouver Centennial Award this past August.