IPI wins technical achievement Academy award

And the winner is . . . IPI! That was the phrase that staff at RIT's Image Permanence Institute surely heard in their heads as they recently opened a letter from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences informing them that they had won a Technical Achievement Award for invention of A-D Strips. IPI scientists developed the acidity indicator papers three years ago to detect and monitor film base deterioration. The strips help everyone from Disney to Warner Bros. to the Library of Congress check new acquisitions and determine when film is in danger and should be duplicated.

The reel world . . . Jean-Louis Bigourdan, a staff scientist in the technical achievement award-winning Image Permanence Institute, inspects film in the lab.

The award honors IPI Director Jim Reilly, research scientist Douglas Nishimura and former intern Monique Fischer for their development of A-D Strips—an achievement that was one small part of a larger project to study what environmental conditions are best for preserving film.

"This award is kind of fun. It's also a win-win. It's good for the lab and it's good for the film community," says Reilly. The research has actually benefited a number of communities who can use IPI's evolving work in archival preservation, film preservation and the commercial imaging industry.

"Our mission has definitely changed over the years. We have dealt a lot with studying preservation of images. But now I would say we have a broader mission. We are looking at preserving information media which can mean a number of things, such as film, paper, tape," says Reilly.

A $300,000 grant IPI received last March from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation focuses research on how information media is stored and how that affects energy costs. "We came up with a generic way to measure how good an environment is for information media storage—a meter of sorts—and this is an application of that. Decay is based on chemical changes, things like temperature and humidity have a large effect. We're looking at how you can save money on energy costs and get a better storage environment at the same time," Reilly says.

The Mellon grant is only the most recent in a series of grants that IPI has received. Research money has come from New York state, previous awards from the Mellon Foundation and many from the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as other organizations. In total, Reilly says that he has seen close to $3 million in grants come to IPI over a 15-year period.

Commercial work, which makes up a small portion of IPI's research load, provides its own benefits, adds Reilly. "I enjoy that part quite a bit. It makes us aware of technology we wouldn't otherwise know about," he says. Recently an article in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle highlighted IPI's work for Hewlett-Packard Co., but the technology giant is just one of many businesses turning to IPI. The research facility's customer list includes companies seeking IPI's expertise to study new digital imaging products, such as Eastman Kodak Company, DuPont and the 3-M Company.

All of these avenues of research fit IPI's mission, says Reilly. "This is so natural for us. We are in exactly the right city for this. We are absolutely at the right university, a place with primary focus on cultural issues and education. There is no place I could think of that could be better for us. As long as this town's industry continues to be dominated by imaging, we will continue to have a niche. I mean, sooner or later if the pictures or the books fade, it's going to matter. It won't be the end of the world, but it will matter."

Reilly will accept a certificate from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences at the Scientific and Technical Awards Dinner and Ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on Feb. 28.