Alumni Achievement Award (Est. 1957)

The highest honor bestowed upon alumni by the University of Illinois Alumni Association on behalf of the University of Illinois. The award is presented to those alumni who have attained outstanding success and national or international distinction in their chosen profession or life’s work, and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on or bring honor to their Alma Mater.

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  Donald L. Bitzer, ’55 ENG, MS ’56 ENG, PHD ’60 ENG

  Donald L. Bitzer has been doing research and teaching for over 65 years. His research has covered a variety of areas including radar, communications devices, new displays, voice analyses, large computer networks and genetics. This work has led to 19 patents and over 100 papers. Presently, he serves as a distinguished university research professor at North Carolina State University.

  In 1960, Bitzer’s dedication to education led him to invent the University of Illinois’s PLATO system, the first automatic multi-user multimedia teaching system flexible enough to provide both local and remote instruction. As part of PLATO, the plasma display panel (PDP) was invented to provide large high resolution and high contrast graphic displays for students’ viewing. The PDP became important for television terminals in the early 1990s with the introduction of high definition television. For his work inventing the PDP, Bitzer received the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Award in 2002.

  Some of Bitzer’s other awards include the Industrial Research 100 Award and the Data Processing Management Association’s Computer Sciences “Man of the Year” Award. He was elected a laureate of the Lincoln Academy of Illinois, and he received the American Federation of Information Processing Societies Education Award for contributions to the spectrum of educational processes, most notably through his invention of the PLATO system. From the University of Illinois, he received the 1992 Distinguished Electrical and Computer Engineering Alumnus Award and was elected into Grainger College of Engineering’s Hall of Fame in 2010.

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  Suzanne Koenig, ’82 SW

  Suzanne Koenig is president and founder of SAK Management Services, a nationally recognized healthcare management and consulting services firm, with specific expertise in senior living, skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. Koenig and SAK provide skills in operations improvement, staff development and quality assurance. Koenig brings expertise in expense management, financial oversight, marketing, census development, clinical review and regulatory improvement to healthcare facilities in order to develop operational enhancements.

  As a nursing home administrator and social worker, Koenig has provided turnaround, consulting and restructuring services throughout the U.S. She regularly serves as a court-appointed receiver to oversee and manage healthcare facilities. Having participated in the writing of the Patient Care Ombudsman statute found within the United States Bankruptcy Code, Koenig frequently is appointed as a patient care ombudsman to oversee patient care in healthcare facilities across the country.

  Koenig also holds a Master of Science degree from Spertus College. She is a frequent speaker for various healthcare industry associations and business affiliates where she conducts continuing education and training programs. In 2022, she received a New York Institute of Credit Women’s Division Renaissance Award and was inducted into the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation Hall of Fame.

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