Lechner Award

The Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award is bestowed once a year to an individual representative of the membership whose technical and leadership contributions to ATSC have been invaluable and exemplary. The title of the award recognizes the first recipient, the late Bernard Lechner, for his outstanding service to the ATSC.

Lechner was the retired Staff Vice President, Advanced Video Systems of RCA Laboratories. His 30-year career at RCA covered all aspects of television and display research, including early work on home video tape recorders in the late 1950s, extensive development of flat-panel matrix displays in the 1960s including pioneering efforts on active-matrix liquid crystal displays, advanced two-way cable TV systems and pay-TV systems in the early 1970s, electronic tuning systems and CCD comb-filters for TV receivers in the mid-1970s, automated broadcast cameras and CCD broadcast cameras in the late 1970s and early 1980s, to HDTV in the mid-1980s.

Lechner Award Recipients

2026 Recipient - Julia Kenyon

“Julia is an excellent consensus builder and techno-diplomat who is a graceful and very competent leader.  She knows how to help groups get things done efficiently and collegially, which is a real art.  Not only has she led multiple ATSC committees, but Julia also has a terrific sense of humor and is able to blend levity with the serious nature of standards work. She is always curious, and most recently has been helping ATSC participants really lean into the benefits of developing artificial intelligence tools”

said ATSC President Madeleine Noland.

Kenyon has served as Vice Chair of ATSC Specialist Group on Interactive Environment (TG3/S38), Vice Chair of ATSC Implementation on Conformance (IT-3), and Chair of ATSC Specialist Group on Management and Protocols (TG3/S33).  Additionally, for more than three years, she has served as CTA’s lead technical representative for the NEXTGEN TV Test Suite development, working not only with ATSC but also chairing CTA’s own groups that work with the test suite.  Kenyon also guided ATSC in the development of A/381, the recommended practice for use of the broadcaster application for NEXTGEN TV.

All Award Recipients