Curtis R. Carlson was president and CEO of SRI International from 1998 to 2014 and is a prominent technologist. A physics graduate of Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Ph.D. student in geophysical fluid dynamics from Rutgers University, he joined Sarnoff Corporation after graduation and worked through the ranks. While at Sarnoff, Carlson led teams that developed the HDTV standard and designed a system to assess broadcast image quality, both of which were awarded a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award. In 1998, Carlson was named CEO of SRI International, a post previously held by William P. Sommers. For his contributions to science, technology, and business, Carlson received Worcester Polytechnic Institute's Robert H. Goddard Alumni Award in 2002. For his role in advancing the functional performance and image quality of information displays, he received the Society for Information Display's Otto H. Schade Award in 2006. He received his Bachelors in physics from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and his Ph.D. in geophysical fluid dynamics from Rutgers University in 1973.