Royal society honors engineering professor

An international science and engineering organization will present Arizona State University professor of industrial engineering Douglas Montgomery one of its most prestigious awards.

He will receive the Greenfield Industrial Medal from the Great Britain-based Royal Statistical Society at its annual meeting in June.

Montgomery is a professor in the School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, a part of ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.

The Greenfield Medal recognizes his contributions “to the effective industrial application of statistical methods, particularly monitoring and optimization, quality improvement and design and analysis of experiments, and for his influential and accessible expository work.”

This award is named for Tony Greenfield, a renowned statistician who has been a professor, author and industry consultant.  

Montgomery worked with Greenfield in 2008 as one of the co-editors of the book, “Statistical Practice in Business and Industry.”

The society, which has more than 7,000 members in 50 countries, promotes public understanding of statistics, provides professional support to users of statistics and statisticians, and promotes the benefits of expertise in statistical methods to industry.

Montgomery has developed statistical engineering methods used by industry and taught in universities throughout the world, and has authored or co-authored 10 textbooks on the field.

He recently earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater Phoenix Area Engineers Week coalition.  In 2006, Montgomery’s scholarship, teaching and research achievements earned him a designation as an ASU Regents’ Professor, the highest career recognition for a faculty member in Arizona state universities.

Writer: Jessica Graham