EurAgEng owes a huge debt of gratitude to the many people who haven given time, energy and enthusiasm to the Society in many different ways. The following people were awarded the EurAgEng Recognition Award at AgEng2008 as an acknowledgement of their contributions over the years.

Professor Zoltán Láng

Professor Láng has been an active member of EurAgEng for many years. He undertook his roles within EurAgEng alongside his responsibilities as Professor and Head of the Technical Department and Vice Dean for Education at the Corvinus University of Budapest . He has served both on the Council and Executive board and took responsibility as the Vice president for Finance from 2002 to 2006. He was instrumental in organising the very successful AgEng2002 that took place in Budapest with over 330 delegates attending.

Dr Ludger Frerichs

Dr Ludger Frerichs has been president of the Max Eyth Society of the German Society of Engineers (VDI MEG) since 2004. In 2006 he welcomed the world community of agricultural engineers in Bonn to the successful joint World Congress AgEng organized by VDI-MEG, CIGR, EurAgEng and FAO.

As Head of the Advanced Engineering department at the Claas company at the time, he accepted the role as industrial member of the executive board of EurAgEng. In his roles with Claas, VDI-MEG and EurAgEng he contributed considerably to the foundation and the work of the AET (Agricultural Engineering and Technology) initiative, resulting in consideration of these themes in the seventh research programme of the European community, FP7.

Professor Josse de Baerdemaeker

As well as his role at the Catholic University, Leuven, Josse has many national and international activities and duties for example as a member of different review committees in the Netherlands, UK and Sweden, member of the Scientific Council of ATB Research Institute in Germany, Past-chairman of the CIGR section on Post-harvest Technology and chairman of the Flanders Centre of Post-Harvest Research, which is a joint University–Industry centre. He is also a founder member and past president of EurAgEng (president for 1996-1998) and chairman of the organising committee of AgEng2004 Leuven together with the Greensys conference.

Professor Bill Day

Bill Day has been an active member for many years and served as president from 2004 to 2006. He led a very successful conference at Warwick in 2000 and has been instrumental in engaging with the agricultural engineering industry as well as academia. He oversaw the appointment of a representative to the Executive from industry and initiated the Industry Innovation Award at Warwick in 2000, now the Innovation and Development Award. Following the closure of the Silsoe Research Institute in 2006, he secured the funds to produce the prestigious Award of Merit which is presented to an inspirational and high achieving leader of industry at the biennial AgEng conferences. Bill now has a new role as Editor-in-Chief of Biosystems Engineering, the scientific journal of the Society.

The picture shows Prof Bill Day (right) receiving the Recognition Award from Prof Florentino Juste (left).