2003 Winner Alec Umansky |
From Pearcey
The 2003 Victorian Pearcey Award presented to Alec Umansky
On Saturday March 22nd Ms Liz Beattie MLA, Parliamentary Secretary for Education on behalf of the Hon. Marsha Thomson MP, Minister for Information & Communication Technology presented the 2003 Victorian Pearcey Award to Alec Umansky, founder of Defence Communications Industry
The award is given annually to a person early in his or her IT career who has demonstrated innovative and pioneering achievement and contribution to research and development.
Alec Umansky was recognized as an outstanding practitioner who has tackled fundamental problems in communications, developed the hardware and software necessary to solve those problems and then taken the risks necessary to get those solutions onto the world market.
Alec’s P3 product was deployed in East Timor to assist the peace keeping and rebuilding effort there and has also been used by the Australian Defence Forces in Bougainville and Afghanistan.
The Chair of the Victorian Awards Committee Peter Thorne said:
"Alec is an inspiration to young people making a career in ICT. He has contributed to both the industry and broader community and has shown that Australian companies can be up there with the world’s best. The Pearcey Foundation is pleased to give this award to Alec and we feel sure he will continue to be a role model to young entrepreneurs."
Dr. Trevor Pearcey led the project team in Australia between 1947 and 1949 that built the fourth operational computer ever constructed, CSIRAC. Dr Pearcey died on January 27th 1998 and the Foundation was established in his memory to honour Australia’s significant contribution to the world’s IT industry.
The Pearcey Foundation initiated an awards program to promote and recognise IT excellence by Australians.
The 2003 Victorian Pearcey Award presentation was hosted by the Victorian branch of the Australian Computer Society during its annual conference dinner at Lorne, Victoria where conference delegates were on hand to congratulate their colleague, Alec Umansky on his outstanding achievements.
View Alec Umansky's speech.