The International Academy for Quality (IAQ), the most prestigious international organization in the field of Quality comprising only of peer-nominated members, launched the Dr Walter E Masing Book Prize in 2007 in memory of one of its founders - also founder and first President of the European Organization for Quality (EOQ). The award is “to recognize the work of an Academician that has significantly enhanced knowledge of quality”. IAQ states that “The Masing book prize is to be awarded to the Academician who is judged by a panel of his peers to have contributed the most noteworthy book on a subject in the discipline of quality management”.

 

Professor Goh Thong Ngee of the Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISE) Department, who is also Director of the Center for Design Technology of the Faculty of Engineering, was named the first recipient of the Masing Prize on 23 May 2007 during a plenary session of the 51^st Congress of the EOQ in Prague . The photograph shows Professor Goh at the award ceremony; on his right is IAQ Chairman Spencer Hutchins (USA) and his left is IAQ President Tito Conti ( Italy ).

The prize-winning book, Six Sigma: Advanced Tools for Black Belts and Master Black Belts (Wiley, 2006, ISBN ISBN: 978-0-470-02583-3) is the work of Prof Goh with three co-authors: Prof Tang Loon Ching (also of the ISE Department), Yam Hong See and Timothy Yeap (both with Seagate Technology at the time of preparing the book). It covers important theoretical and practical aspects of Six Sigma beyond the standard methodologies, and is a fine example of collaboration between academia and industry for world-class output.