AGM: Awards
Pillars of society This year’s award winners found themselves in learned company
Lou Bedocs receives the President’s Medal from Jeff Shaw
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Joe Lynes was made an Honorary Fellow
Iain Macrae was given the Lighting Award
Photography: Michael Eleftheriades
The very first ‘learned society’ meeting was held on 28 November 1660 following a lecture at Gresham College given by Sir Christopher Wren. Not, clearly, the beginnings of this society, but the venerable institution that hosted this year’s SLL AGM and Awards, the Royal Society in London’s St James’s, home of scientific luminaries from Darwin to Dawkins. The President’s Medal, awarded for a lifetime contribution to lighting, this year went to Lou Bedocs. In his citation, Iain Maclean traced the extraordinary life story of Bedocs. Born in Hungary, he eventually came to the UK as a refugee following the Soviet invasion. He was befriended by one of the refugee camp carers who invited him to stay with his family in Malvern. First employed at the Ferguson radio factory, he recognised that television was the future and asked to move to the Ferguson TV factory in Enfield, which became part of Thorn Electrical Industries. Enrolled as an apprentice, he worked in the various departments of Atlas Lighting, also owned by Thorn. After completing his apprenticeship and engineering studies at various polytechnics he took on the role of environmental development engineer in the Atlas Lighting labs, where he would go on to develop many novel lamps, lighting products and application techniques, including the development of air-handling luminaires and paving the way for intelligent fittings. He also devised methods for calculating crosstalk attenuation between rooms, enabling ceilings with recessed troffers. The results of this research led to the early use of full building services integration, where heat, light and sound were brought together within the total design process. Thorn Lighting was formed in 1969 by the joining together of the Atlas, Ekco and Mazda brands, and Bedocs expanded his research into glare, emergency lighting and flicker. He was also involved in the concept, design and technical fit-out of a new multi-floor dedicated research building in Enfield, a leading national lighting research facility. During the next 30 years he was to fill increasingly senior managerial roles in Thorn finally becoming its technical director in 1991. His extensive R&D work led to him becoming involved in UK and international standards development, particularly in emergency lighting and calorimetry. Bedocs has been an active member of more than 26 different CIE committees and panels, including as chair and director. He was elected a Fellow of the IES in 1975 and Fellow of CIBSE in 1977. A vice president of CIBSE for three years, he was chair of the SLL in 1990 and chaired the SLL technical committee for more than five years. During those years, he was awarded two Leon
Dan Lister was the recipient of the Regional Award
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