Bill Woodall receives first Soren Bisgaard Award from American Society of Quality

4 Oct 2013

Bill Woodall, professor of statistics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, has been selected as co-recipient of the first Soren Bisgaard Award which recognizes the paper in the American Society for Quality journal, Quality Engineering, with the greatest potential for advancing the practice of quality improvement.

Receiving the award with Woodall is the late George E.P. Box, the world-renowned statistician who co-wrote the paper “Innovation, Quality Engineering, and Statistics” with Woodall. It was the last paper written by Box, who has his own namesake award, the Box Medal.

The Box Medal is awarded to an extraordinary statistician who has made remarkable contributions to the development and application of statistical methods in business and industry. Woodall received the Box Medal in 2012.

The collaboration on the paper was initiated by Box who called Woodall asking if he would be interested in writing a paper on innovation after Woodall’s inquiry as to why Box had added the word “innovation” to the title of his seminal book on designed experimentation.

“Our collaboration will remain the highlight of my career,” said Woodall. “I found that Professor Box remained exceptionally bright at age 92. It is unfortunate he passed away before the award was announced, because he and Soren Bisgaard were close colleagues and friends.”

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty since 2000, Woodall has received numerous awards for teaching and research, including the Shewhart Medal, the American Society for Quality’s Brumbaugh Award, and the Pamplin MBA faculty award. He received his bachelor's degree from Millsaps College and a master's degree and doctoral degree from Virginia Tech.