Two ECE alumni receive Alumni Award for Distinguished Service

Two ECE alumni have received The Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Award for Distinguished Service: Hillery C. Hunter (BS '99, MS '02, PhD '04) for her outstanding innovations in systems hardware and cloud computing and contributions to the next generation of technical leaders, and Roger L. Johnson (BS '65, MS '66, Phd '70) for his contributions to the invention, development and commercialization of the PLATO System and the Plasma Display Panel and touch input technologies.

Hillery C. Hunter

CTO and General Manager of Innovation, IBM Infrastructure

• BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1999
• MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2002
• PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2004

Hillery Hunter is the CTO and general manager of innovation for IBM Infrastructure. In this role, she is focused on driving innovation and growth across IBM's Infrastructure portfolio, including IBM Z, Power, Storage and IBM Cloud. In her previous role as general manager of Industry Clouds and CTO of IBM Cloud, she led business and technical strategy for IBM’s industry-contextualized cloud offerings and was responsible for technical strategy for IBM's public cloud. Prior to this role, she served as director of Accelerated Cognitive Infrastructure in IBM Research, leading a team doing cross-stack (hardware through software) optimization of AI workloads.

Her technical interests have always been interdisciplinary, spanning from silicon technology through system software, and she has served in technical and leadership roles in memory technology, Systems for AI, and other areas. She has received numerous awards throughout her career including IBM’s Outstanding Technical Achievement Award. She is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and was appointed as an IBM Fellow in 2017. Hillery is a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Roger L. Johnson

Chairman and CEO, Information Technology, Ltd.

• BS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1965
• MS, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1966
• PhD, Electrical Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 1970

As a graduate student, Roger Johnson participated in the early development of the PLATO Computer- based Education System, the Plasma Display Panel (PDP) technology, and the first touch input computer displays. He is a named inventor on multiple University of Illinois patents associated with these technology developments. First as an assistant professor then associate professor, he taught courses in integrated circuit, computer and display technology in the Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

In 1977 he joined Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), where he worked until his retirement 36 years later. He was a founding member of the SAI Technology Co., a Division of SAIC that specialized in developing highly mobile electronics and systems for the Defense and Intelligence Communities. Much of his effort was dedicated to transitioning the University of Illinois-invented technologies of display and touch into commercial and government systems both domestic and international. During his employment, he held the position of senior vice president and director of SAIC’s Center for Mobile Computing Technology.

Roger served on the board of directors for the National Center for Advanced Information Components Manufacturing (NCAICM) at Sandia National Laboratories. He is a member of the IEEE and was granted the position of fellow in the Society for Information Display in 1986. Roger served as a member of the board of directors of the University of Illinois Alumni Association (UIAA) from 2009-2015. In 2005, he received a distinguished alumni award from the University of Illinois Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.