A2LA Today l June 2017 l Number 135
By Kelsey Roberts, A2LA Marketing and Business Development Manager
Candidates for the John W. Locke Award must meet five of the six following criteria:
- Commitment of their time and services to A2LA towards the advancement of laboratory accreditation (nationally and/or internationally);
- Extensive expertise in their industry, academia and/or service sector;
- Innovative ideas adopted by their industry, academia and/or service sector;
- Demonstrated leadership in their industry, academia and/or service sector (such as standards writing), which made a significant impact on accreditation;
- Achievement of a high degree of respect from their peers; and
- Attainment of an impeccable reputation for statesmanship, diplomacy and fairness.
The winner of this award for 2017 is Mr. Peter Unger and we had the distinct pleasure of having Mr. John Locke himself present it. He noted the following about this year’s recipient during his presentation speech:
First, let me say that the award is given to people who have been notably effective in advancing laboratory accreditation. Over half the time, the award has been given to very senior assessors – such as Gene Zerlaut two years ago. That is as it should be, for you assessors are a key part of recognizing the competence of laboratories.
I am reminded that our recipient last year was John Gilmour, a renowned administrator of laboratory accreditation systems. But in my introduction of him, I forgot to say that john has assessed more laboratories himself, in the course of his duties, than any of you, not just in Australia but around the world.
I believe that today’s recipient of the award has assessed even more laboratories in more countries than John did. He must hold the record; I shall ask him to count them up one day.
The award was established in 2006. It’s the highest award presented by the association. The recipient was chosen by the management staff based on the commitment of time to A2LA, vision of the future, expertise, innovative ideas, leadership, respect of peers, and impeccable reputation, diplomacy and fairness.
It doesn’t say it’s a dinosaur award anymore but when it was first awarded to me it was called that. A big figure of a dinosaur dominated the award. The dinosaur had a long neck so maybe it was named that way is because I’ve been known to stick out my neck on many occasions.
So has this year’s recipient. We no longer call it the dinosaur award but it remains the highest award we can present to anyone. This year’s recipient implemented the idea back in 2006 and I expected he might receive the award in due course. Due course is now. So, I invite Pete Unger to come forward to receive the award and to possibly tell all of you the background of the dinosaur, now that he is one.
Mr. Unger clearly meets all six of the criteria for the John W. Locke Award and we offer him our heartfelt congratulations on this much-deserved recognition!