UA Professor Named Editor-Elect of Quality Journal

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ‚ Dr. William H. Woodall, Russell Professor of Statistics at The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, has emerged as one of the quality profession’s most respected voices.

Woodall has just been named the editor-elect of the prestigious Journal of Quality Technology, the technical journal of the American Society for Quality. He was also named a Fellow of the American Society for Quality. In addition, the society’s monthly magazine, Quality Progress, has chosen Woodall as one of 21 “future voices of quality for the 21st Century.”

“There is a need to update the training materials on statistical process control to incorporate methods that can be more useful in the data-intensive environment of modern manufacturing,” said Woodall. “Also, the scope of statistical process control must be broadened to include methods for studying variation throughout the entire manufacturing process, not just at isolated points.”

Quality Progress, in announcing its “21 Voices for the 21st Century,” said its purpose was to “identify and amplify 21 voices whose individual and collective statements could serve to stimulate thinking about how quality will be applied in the 21st Century.”

The list of 21 has an international flavor, with voices from Norway, Korea, England, Canada, Ireland, Brazil, China, India and Portugal, as well as the United States.

The American Society for Quality is the leading organization for professionals interested in quality improvement and quality management. The organization has more than 130,000 individual members and 1, 000 corporate sponsors.

The Journal of Quality Technology is consistently ranked as one of the highest rated journals in terms of impact in the fields of industrial engineering and in the fields of management science and operations research. It is the leading journal worldwide on the use of statistical methods for quality control and improvement.

In naming Woodall a Fellow, the American Society for Quality cited him “for the development of both new and improved methodologies in the use and application of statistical quality control charts, and in their implementation through excellence in university teaching, through professional seminars and meetings, through extensive publications and through personal consulting activities across many different industrial environments.”

Woodall, who is also a Fellow of the American Statistical Association, received his bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Millsaps College and his master’s and doctorate in statistics from Virgina Tech. He held academic positions at the University of Louisiana ‚ Lafayette, and at Mississippi State University before joining The University of Alabama faculty. He is a native of Mississippi and graduated from Meridian, Miss. High School.

“These are significant achievements for Dr. Woodall,” said J. Barry Mason, dean of the College and Thomas J. Russell Professor of Business Administration. “To be selected as editor-elect of one of the most prestigious journals in one’s field is a tremendous accomplishment. And to be a Fellow of both the American Society for Quality and the American Statistical Association is truly exceptional.”

Woodall specializes in statistical quality control, applied statistics and the study of fuzzy logic. He is widely known for the development and evaluation of statistical methods for quality control and improvement. His current research is being funded by the National Science Foundation.

He has served as a reviewer for more than 40 journals, funding agencies and universities outside the United States and has directed 13 doctoral dissertations on statistical process control.