Fabtech AWS Educational Programs

R. D. Thomas, Jr., International Lecture

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Wednesday, November 18, 2009 - 10:00 AM • Room N227a
(American Council of IIW meeting immediately following lecture at 10:30 AM) Dr. David Wiggery, retired from ESAB, current consultant

This year’s R. D. Thomas, Jr., International Lecture Award recipient, Dr. David Wiggery, will speak on “Standardization – Brake on Innovation or Engine for Change?” The R. D. Thomas, Jr., International Lecture Award was created to honor R. D. Thomas, Jr., for his participation in IIW/ISO activities and is presented by AWS to an individual who is also involved in IIW/ISO international activities. The recipient is invited to deliver a lecture illustrating the incorporation of global studies in the standardization of welding technology during the AWS Welding Show and at the Annual Assembly of the IIW.

After taking a degree in metallurgy at Cambridge University, David Widgery joined the British Welding Research Association, later to become TWI, in 1964. He was awarded the AWS Lincoln Gold Medal for his 1976 paper “Deoxidation practice for mild steel weld metal.”

In 1976, he left TWI to join GKN Lincoln Electric Ltd as Development Manager. In 1982, the GKN welding companies were acquired by the ESAB Group. He published a book, Tubular Wire Welding, in 1994. David Widgery became chairman of IIW SC II-E in 2001. The main work of this committee over the following years was to bring together the CEN and ISO standards by developing the so-called “cohabitation” drafts, many of which have now been adopted by CEN and ISO and published as national standards. Following retirement from ESAB in 2007, he now works as a consultant.