American Society for Quality awarded Dr. Wayne Nelson of Schenectady, New York the 2003 Shewhart Medal. The Medal honors his outstanding technical leadership, particularly for innovative developments and applications of theory and methods for analyzing quality, reliability, and accelerated test data, and for widely disseminating such developments through his books and many publications, talks, and courses.

The Shewhart Medal for outstanding technical leadership is named after Dr. Walter A. Shewhart, who pioneered statistical methods for controlling and improving the quality of manufactured products. These methods contributed significantly to the United States' war effort in World War II. Subsequently taken to Japan by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, these methods revolutionized Japan's industries. Today these methods are part of widely used Six Sigma training on how to improve the quality of products and services.

The American Society for Quality is the world's largest professional society dedicated to the improved quality of products and services. It serves its members and the public through a variety of educational activities, including conferences, training courses, journals, and books.

Dr. Nelson is a graduate of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the Univiversity of Illinois. Formerly with GE Research & Development, he now privately consults and gives courses for companies, professional societies, and universities. For his technical contributions, he was elected a Fellow of the American Society for Quality, the American Statistical Association, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He recently spent four months in Argentina on a Fulbright Award, lecturing on analysis of product reliability data.