Three-time College of Engineering alumnus Douglas C. Montgomery committed a gift of $150,000 to the Department of Statistics and the Grado Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering to establish the Douglas C. Montgomery Distinguished Lecture Series, an interdisciplinary series of talks on current topics in industrial statistics and statistical engineering.
Montgomery credits both departments with enabling him to have a productive and successful career.
“Even in the 1960s when I was a student, industrial engineers were leaders in the engineering profession in promoting productivity, quality, and business efficiency, and were major users of statistical science within engineering,” Montgomery said.
The lecture series will include researchers and industry experts from statistics, industrial and systems engineering, and related fields. Speakers selected will be internationally renowned and will be of broad interest across the university, especially of interest to faculty and students from both departments.
Montgomery currently holds the Regents’ Professorship of Industrial Engineering in the School of Computing, Informatics, and Decision Systems Engineering, one of Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.
Dave Higdon, department head of statistics, said he is grateful for Montgomery’s generosity and leadership: “Since graduating from Virginia Tech, Doug Montgomery has had a hall-of-fame career, working at the interface of statistics and industrial engineering — he’s a world-renowned leader in research, education, and application. His generous gift gives our two departments an opportunity to spur new ideas, interest, and activity at this interface.”