ANSI Leadership &
Service Awards

Next Generation AWARD

Next Generation Awards honor individuals who have been engaged in standardization or conformity assessment activities for less than eight years and have, during this time, demonstrated vision, leadership, dedication, and significant contributions to his or her chosen field of activity.

President’s Award for Communications

The President’s Award for Communications honors an individual or team whose work helps to illuminate the role that standardization and conformity assessment activities play in improving the health and safety of Americans and in strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. business in a global marketplace.  Professionals working in print, broadcast, or electronic media will be considered.

Chairman’s Award

The Chairman's award honors outstanding accomplishments performed by any group or individual on behalf of ANSI or the ANSI Federation. Recipients are selected by the chairman of the ANSI Board of Directors in consultation with the Awards Committee. The award may be presented at any time. Nominations are not required.

Stephen Crawford Workforce Development and Innovation MEDAL

The Stephen Crawford Workforce Development and Innovation Medal recognizes exemplary accredited credentialing bodies, or an individual associated with an accredited certification body, that significantly impact workforce development in the United States. The recipient organization or individual will be chosen based on the following criteria:

• Providing a credentialing solution to prepare workers/learners for skilled and professional jobs
• Fostering partnerships and collaborations with government, industry, and employers to develop the skilled workforce they need for business growth and competitiveness
• Developing innovative practices to improve the quality of the credentialing program
• Fostering innovation that builds economic value and addresses the skills gap in the United States

The award is named for the late Stephen Crawford, a staunch advocate of workforce development and valued leader and contributor to ANSI, Workcred, and the greater workforce and credentialing communities, who passed away unexpectedly in 2022. A founding board member of Workcred, Dr. Crawford was instrumental in bringing national visibility to the organization and strengthening its impact on quality credentialing and workforce development.

Maureen Breitenberg Conformity Assessment Research Medal

The Maureen Breitenberg Conformity Assessment Research Medal honors work that advances the principles of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) through outstanding contributions toward reducing redundancy and complexity in conformity assessment. Efforts to leverage private-sector conformity assessment infrastructure to meet market and regulatory needs, or distinguished research from business, industry, government, academic, or non-profit professionals that illuminate the importance of conformance in providing confidence in standards compliance, improving the health and safety of Americans, and strengthening the competitiveness of U.S. business in the global marketplace, will be considered.

The award is named for the late Maureen Breitenberg, a valued leader and contributor to ANSI and the greater standards and conformity assessment community, who passed away in 2010. Ms. Breitenberg served as senior economist in the Standards Services Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). A prodigious author, her widely referenced publications on certification, conformity assessment, laboratory accreditation, and U.S. and international standardization activities have been recognized as primers for anyone entering these fields.

George S. Wham Leadership Medal

The George S. Wham Leadership Medal honors outstanding contributions by an individual who has provided direction and long-range planning to the ANSI standards federation in commitment and support of the national and/or international standards system or in a specific area of voluntary standardization.

The award is named in honor of Dr. George S. Wham, technical director at Good Housekeeping magazine, who has served as a past chairman of ANSI’s Board of Directors and who was a member of the Board for more than a decade. It was Dr. Wham’s leadership and vision that initiated the establishment of ANSI’s long-range strategic planning process, which enabled ANSI to respond to increasing challenges of the global standards community. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Wham chaired ANSI’s Consumer Interest Council and ANSI’s Coordinating Board on Textiles, and also led numerous delegations to international meetings on textile standardization. In addition, Dr. Wham has served on advisory committees of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the National Academy of Sciences and has been active in the American Association of Textiles, Chemists and Colorists, ASTM, and Underwriters Laboratories. Dr. Wham was the first individual to receive this prestigious award.

Elihu Thomson Electrotechnology Medal

The Elihu Thomson Electrotechnology Medal honors an individual who has contributed in an exceptional, dedicated way to the field of electrotechnology standardization, conformity assessment and related activities both at the national and international levels. The selection of a recipient for this medal will be primarily based on the individual’s leadership accomplishments within the electrotechnology standardization and/or conformity assessment field via the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the U.S. National Committee of the IEC, and/or other such bodies.

The creation of the Elihu Thomson Electrotechnology Medal was recommended by the USNC. 2007 marks the first year that nominations have been accepted for this award.

Gerald H. Ritterbusch Conformity Assessment Medal

The Gerald H. Ritterbusch Conformity Assessment Medal honors distinguished service in promoting the understanding and application of conformity assessment methods as a means of providing confidence in standards compliance for the marketplace. The award is named for Gerald H. Ritterbusch, retired director of standards and regulations at Caterpillar. There, he led standards development efforts in the earth-moving industry which included chairmanship of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee (TC) 127, Earth-moving machinery. In addition, Mr. Ritterbusch made many contributions to ANSI governance through long-standing service on the Board of Directors, Executive Committee, and the Company Member Forum. A stalwart champion in the formative years of ANSI’s Accreditation Programs and voice of industry needs, he was chairman of ANSI’s Board Committee on Conformity Assessment (precursor of today’s Conformity Assessment Policy Committee) as well as chairman of the Joint Oversight Board of the ANSI-RAB National Accreditation Program (predecessor to the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB)). Mr. Ritterbusch was also the recipient of the Howard Coonley Medal in 2002.

2010 was the first year that nominations were accepted for this award.

Edward Lohse Information Technology Medal

The Edward Lohse Information Technology Medal honors an individual who has participated in the development of information technology standards both at the national and international levels, demonstrated leadership in the promotion of such standards within the information technology standards community and fostered cooperation among the bodies involved in global standardization.

Edward Lohse was instrumental in the founding of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), formerly known as Accredited Standards Committee X3 - Information Processing Systems) and ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1- Information Technology, and was a recognized leader within the Information Technology Industry Council, Electronics Industries Association, Association of Computing Machinery, International Telecommunications Union, Society of Automotive Engineers and the American National Standards Institute. One of his major accomplishments, contributing to his being awarded the Astin-Polk International Standards Medal, was the fostering of close cooperation among the CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee of the International Telecommunications Union), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

Finegan Standards Medal

The Finegan Standards Medal honors an individual, not necessarily an executive, who has shown extraordinary leadership in the actual development and application of voluntary standards.

The Standards Medal was renamed in 1985 for Richard J. Finegan, vice-president of Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, who for more than a decade provided leadership and strong support to ANSI and the voluntary standards system. Mr. Finegan helped determine Institute policy and programs as a long-standing member of ANSI’s Board of Directors. He served as vice-chairman, vice-president, a member of the Executive Committee, and chairman of the Board Finance Committee. He was also elected honorary chairman of the Board in recognition of his outstanding service. The Finegan Standards Medal, named in his honor, encourages others to give the same caliber of exceptional leadership.

Howard Coonley Medal

The Howard Coonley Medal honors an executive who has rendered great service to the national economy through voluntary standardization and who has given outstanding support to standardization as a management tool. This award was named for Howard Coonley, who for many years was president and chairman of the Board of the Walworth Company. He served three terms as president of ANSI, then known as the American Standards Association, and twenty-two years on its Board of Directors. In 1946, he was elected first president of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Because of his long and outstanding service to the voluntary standards system, the medal was not only named for him, but he was its first recipient.

Astin-Polk International Standards Medal

The Astin-Polk International Standards Medal honors distinguished service in promoting trade and understanding among nations through personal participation in the advancement, development, or administration of international standardization, measurements, or certification. The award is named for the late Dr. Allen V. Astin and Dr. Louis F. Polk, Sr., outstanding advocates of international standardization and measurement, who were closely associated with the development of science and engineering and in improving national and international metrology. Dr. Astin retired from the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST) in 1969 after thirty-seven years on the staff, seventeen of them as director. Dr. Polk was chairman of the U.S. Metric board. Because of their distinguished contributions, Dr. Astin and Dr. Polk were the first recipients of this award.