About the Speaker:
James R. Benya, PE, FIES, FIALD is a founding Principal at Benya Burnett Consultancy in Davis, California. He is a frequent speaker at IES and IALD meetings and conferences, a columnist at Designing Lighting Magazine, and a member of the 2013 Class of the Michigan Lighting Hall of Fame.
He is among the most highly recognized members of the IES community. He is a Fellow and two-time member of the Board of Fellows of the IES, a four-time winner of the IES International Illumination Award of Excellence, a recipient of the 1999 IES President's Award for his work on ASHRAE/IES 90.1, a periodic contributor to LD&A, the winner of the Sol Cohn Lifetime Achievement Award from the IES Northern California Section, and the 2020 recipient of the IES Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to the Society.
Through all of this, Jim has had a curiosity about light which has informed his constructive commentary and periodic criticism of our industry and its trends. In LD&A in 2018 Jim wrote, "Our Work is Done Here," citing the profound improvements in lighting efficiency 40 years and asking why lighting codes needed to continue to change. He has been a guest speaker on the NAILD podcast "Get a Grip on Lighting" and is particularly popular for questioning trends in the industry and marketplace. At the 1992 IES Annual Conference, Jim was introduced by Dan Blitzer as an "iconoclast". Don't expect to hear political correctness in this program either.