Life on the cutting edge
Ronald Aarts began his career with Philips in 1977. Since that time, he’s gone on to become a member of numerous societies and organizations (including the AES), was made a Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology and has over 140 first patent filings – a massive number, but one that barely does justice to the many significant contributions Ronald has made to some truly groundbreaking projects at Research. "Over the years, I've worked on projects ranging from the video long-play (VLP) to the CD. More recently, I've extended my focus to signal processing for medical applications."

Keeping good company
The AES's Silver Medal Award was established in 1971 in honor of audio pioneers, such as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison, and is presented to people who have made an outstanding contribution to the field of audio engineering. So which particular aspects of Ronald’s work won him the award? "The AES said it was for my work on signal processing in the area of acoustics and sound reproduction. I have to say, I was really pleased when I heard the news: it’s great for me personally and it’s great for Philips, too." And pleased he should be: a quick glance at the other award winners reveals names such as Ray Dolby, of Dolby stereo fame, and Robert Moog, the man who developed the modern synthesizer. "I do seem to be keeping illustrious company at the moment! However, none of this would have been possible without the support and assistance of my colleagues at Philips Research. My career is definitely one that shows what you can achieve when you bring world-class researchers together in a market-focused environment. Long may it continue!"

Mind your 'Ps'!
What does Ronald think is the secret to his success? "It's definitely my 'Ps',"he laughs. "That's Patents, Publications and Product innovations. Sometimes I add a fourth P, which stands for People. As I said before, my colleagues at Research make my work possible – they also make it more fun!" Ronald will be presented with his award in the autumn. In the meantime, he would like to advise his colleagues to "mind their Ps!".

• 1965 - prof.dr. A.D. Fokker
• 1966 - ir. R. Vermeulen
• 1969 - prof.dr.ir. C.W. Kosten
• 1971 - prof. dr. C. Zwikker
• 1983 - ir. V.M.A. Peutz
• 1988 - prof.dr.ir. R. Plomp
• 1994 - ir. G.J. Kleinhoonte van Os
• 1994 - prof.ir. P.A. de Lange
• 2004 - dr.ir. A. de Bruijn
• 2004 - prof.dr.ir. T. Houtgast

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