The Gerald S. Birth Award for outstanding innovation in diffuse reflection or diffuse transmission spectroscopy is conferred and sponsored by the Council for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (CNIRS) in memory of Gerald Birth. The late Dr. Birth was the founder of the International Diffuse Reflectance Conference (IDRC), also sponsored by the CNIRS. He made many contributions to the instrument technology related to diffuse reflectance.
Prof. Dr. Dolores Peréz-Marín, PhD in Agriculture Engineering (University of Córdoba-UCO, Spain). She started working on NIRS as researcher in the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry Engineering (ETSIAM, University of Cordoba, Spain) in 1999, where, currently, she holds the position of Full-Professor in Fundamentals and Technology of Livestock Production and in Non-destructive Spectral Sensors for Quality, Safety and Traceability of Agro-Food Products. She is Director of the Master of Engineering and Management in the food chain and Vice-dean in International&Institutional Relations at ETSIAM.
She is a worldwide recognized expert in the used of sensors and new technologies applied to feed & food integrity. Her expertise in non-destructive spectral sensors (mainly, NIR and hyperspectral sensors) covers both fundamental and applied research. This research has resulted in well over 250 publications, with 105 of these being peer-reviewed papers in top quality journals and several contributions as invited speakers in national and international conferences and workshops (H index 25). She has experience in the participation, management and scientific co-ordination of several national and European R + D NIRS projects and in technology transfer. She is currently the coordinator of the European Action Cost “European Network for assuring food integrity using non-destructive spectral sensors” (2020-2024).
She is the President of the Educational Group of ICNIRS, she was member of the Council Management Committee (2013-2019)and now she is member of the President’s Advisory Committe (2019-2025). She is member of the International Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute for Global Food Security- Queens University (UK). She is also Editor of the Journal of NIRS. She was awarded in 2014 with the International Tomas Hirschfeld Award for her outstanding contribution in the field of NIR spectroscopy.