Dutch scientist and inventor Professor Kornelis Immink was awarded an honorary doctoral degree – Doctor Honoris Causa for technical and scientific research – by the University of Johannesburg (UJ) at a ceremony earlier this month.
Immink pioneered the development and creation of digital audio and video products such as the compact disc (CD), the digital video disc and the Blu-ray disc.
The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment conferred the honorary degree on Immink for his role in the development of digital systems and the impact of his inventions on digital society.
Immink has worked with the Centre for Telecommunications for many years.
He said that he had a great passion for science and engineering and noted that engineers have changed the world throughout history.
“An engineer must have an excellent education. Achieving excellence in engineering requires good governance in our academic institutions and beyond, as well as the freedom to conduct independent research. To the new engineers and scientists: spread out over the world and change it to a better one. You can do it; your fellow engineers and scientists of the past have paved the way.”
Immink joined diversified technology company Philips Research Labs in 1968 and moved to the company’s optical group in 1975, where he worked on the laser-videodisc, which is accurately scanned by a laser beam and can play an hour of video and audio.
While the video disc was a technical success, it was a failure in the market, but the company’s audio product group director approached Immink and his colleagues there- after to develop an audio-only disc.
With a few setbacks under their belt in the development of the audio disc, a breakthrough in the mid-1970s propelled the development of what would become the CD. The development included the popularity of hi-fi digital sound and experiments that resulted in the application of coding theory to optical discs.
“Our research was accelerated when we worked with engineers from electronic products manufacturer Sony and, within a year, we were able to publish the CD standard, and the product engineers could start their work on the production of the disc and the disc player,” Immink said.
The CD was launched in the market in 1982 as the world’s first fully digital device.
Since then, the CD has become a catalyst for further innovation in digital audio and video technology and has created a multibillion mass consumer industry.
UJ Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment executive dean Saurabh Sinha noted that the university sought to honour an individual that excelled globally in a specific discipline.