Milwaukee, WI-The American Society for Quality (ASQ) , will present two Distinguished Service Medals and 12 Society medals and awards during its Annual World Conference on Quality and Improvement in Pittsburgh, PA, May 15, 2011. The recipients are recognized for their innovative contributions and achievements in the area of quality methodology. Their exemplary achievements are also representative of the ideas and tools that make our world work better.

Each individual will be awarded a medal or award during ASQ’s annual business meeting Sunday, May 15. For more information about ASQ awards, click here.

Distinguished service medals will be presented to:

Manu K. Vora -Business Excellence Inc., Naperville, Ill.

For his selfless service as a long-term enabler and champion of quality around the world; for sharing quality principles and best practices for the benefit of the quality community; for his sincere dedication, exceptional contribution, exemplary leadership, and sustained service for the Society in promoting quality principles, applications, and methods; for devoting his personal energy, talent, and time to enhance the image of ASQ at national, section, regional, and international levels; and for mentoring and guiding quality professionals.

Gregory H. Watson - Business Excellence Solutions, Espoo, Finland

For a career of dedicated service to the vocation of quality, the profession of industrial engineering, and his effective personal influence on the global quality movement through an exceptional commitment to public service and deep dedication to the cause of quality for the benefit of humankind. 2010 Society medals will be presented to:

The Crosby medal presented to Steven J. Spear -MIT Sloan School of Management, Brookline, MA, for contributing to the Quality Body of Knowledge by identifying observed, common organizational capabilities underlying the success of dominant organizations in varied sectors.

Deming Medal presented to Donald J. Wheeler - Statistical Process Controls. Inc., Knoxville, TN, for his propagation of Dr. Deming’s ideas throughout the world through his numerous books and seminars on quality management and statistical quality improvement.This teaching has led to well-documented business successes through higher quality and lower costs.

Edwards Medal presented to Nabil Khalid Al-Dabal - Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, for his outstanding contribution to transform the quality culture and performance of a significant workforce, the local industry, and the largest oil producer through modern quality philosophy and management methods.

Feigenbaum Medal presented to Jamison V. Kovach - University of Houston, Houston, Texas, for her contributions to the field of quality engineering and management, where she applies practical experience as a process improvement engineer and academic expertise in innovative instructional techniques to prepare students and practitioners to engage in problem-solving activities.

Freund-Marquardt Medal presented to Yoshinori Iizuka - The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, for his continuing leadership in the philosophy behind and development of ISO 9000 international standards and related standards for sustainable development of quality management systems; for implementing standards as president of the Japanese Society for Quality Control and for implementing quality management principles; for his contributions to literature in healthcare recognized by the NIKKEI Book Award for Quality Management; and for his role in achieving sound conformity assessment based on ISO 9001 in Japan.

Hutchens Medal presented to John Elkington - Volans, London, United Kingdom, for more than 30 years, John Elkington has been the cultural catalyst leading the business world toward a vision of corporate social responsibility. On that path, he has established not only a business model for SR, but a model for all of us to aspire to.

Juran Medal presented to Vincent F. Cotter -Colonial School District, Plymouth Meeting, PA. Through a leadership style focused on innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement, Dr. Vincent F. Cotter has dedicated his career to promoting and deploying actions required to create, sustain, and improve the effectiveness of the public education system.

Lancaster Medal presented to Dr. Charles A. Aubrey II - Anderson Pharmaceutical Packaging, Rockford, IL, for his selfless dedication to the global quality community, exceptional leadership, and dedicated personal commitment to the advancement of the cause of quality through his vigorous support of quality improvement activities both globally and in Asia-Pacific regional quality organizations, and for his long tenure in service as the representative of ASQ to the Asia Pacific Quality Organization.

Shainin Medal presented to Wayne B. Nelson -Wayne Nelson Statistical Consulting, Schenectady, NY, for his creative new accelerated test methodology, including statistical models, efficient test plans, model fitting, informative data plots, and pioneering software, and for widely disseminating these developments through his bookAccelerated Testing, 34 articles, and more than 100 courses and talks.

ShewhartMedal presented to G. Geoffrey Vining - Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, for outstanding contributions in quality improvement technology, in particular in experimental design, response surface methodology, and regression analysis, and in a form that is of direct benefit to practitioners in quality engineering.

2010 Society awards will be presented to:

Brumbaugh Award presented to George Box -Department of Statistics and Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, for coauthoring the paper “Rethinking Statistics for Quality Control,” Quality Engineering, Vol. 22, No. 2, April – June 2010, pp. 60–72.

Brumbaugh Award presented to Surendar Narasimhan-University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, for coauthoring the paper “Rethinking Statistics for Quality Control,” Quality Engineering, Vol. 22, No. 2, April – June 2010, pp. 60–72.