Readers may recall that FCC’s secrecy about recognizing the excellence of its engineers has been a recurring topic here. The Excellence in Engineering Analysis Awards were started in the Powell Chairmanship around 2003 to recognize high achievement and contribution to the FCC mission. However, until last week the awards were never publicly announced on the FCC’s vast website and only sometimes mentioned at formal Commission meetings. All that changed on 9/30/14 with this press release.

Janet Young of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau is the winner of the 2014 Excellence in Engineering Analysis Award. Ms. Young, the sole FCC member of the first Technical Panel created under the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, provided significant engineering analyses that shortened the transition timelines of Federal incumbents that will relocate or implement sharing arrangements with commercial licensees in two frequency bands that are part of the “AWS-3” spectrum. Her work will allow for faster deployment of new commercial services in this spectrum, which is scheduled for auction November 13, 2014.

Janet Young/WTB
Congratulations to Ms. Young for her achievement and its recognition!

(In previous years there were several awards to individuals as well as a group award, here is an example. This year FCC leadership apparently decided to give one big cash award rather than several small ones. Oddly in the same announcement they gave one award for Excellence in Economic Analysis even though there are a lot more engineers at FCC than economists.)

Tags: awards@FCC