The Isenberg School Remembers Soren Bisgaard
December 17, 2009
Memorial Service for Professor Bisgaard is Saturday, January 23 from 2-4 p.m. in Memorial Hall.
The Isenberg School mourns former acting dean Soren Bisgaard, who died at age 58 on December 14. Professor Bisgaard served as acting dean of the school from June 2006 through August 2007. He was Eugene M. Isenberg Professor in Integrative Studies and Professor of Technology Management in the school's Department of Finance and Operations Management.
Professor Bisgaard joined the Isenberg School in 2002 as its first Isenberg Professor in Integrative Studies. A passionate advocate of interdisciplinary education, he held one of three endowed chairs funded by Gene '50 and Ronnie Isenberg on the UMass Amherst campus. Professor Bisgaard worked energetically with his Isenberg chair counterpart in engineering, Michael Malone, to create interdisciplinary synergies and programs that have integrated business, science, and technology on the UMass Amherst campus.
As a scholar and consultant, Professor Bisgaard had an international reputation in the fields of statistics and quality management. An authority on applied statistics and Six Sigma Quality Management, he received numerous academic and professional awards, including the Shewhart Medal-the American Society of Quality Management's highest honor.
Last May, Professor Bisgaard was recognized by the American Society of Quality Control for writing that discipline's best paper, which appeared in the journal, Quality Engineering. In September of 2007 Professor Bisgaard was one of seven nationally prominent UMass Amherst faculty members honored with the annual Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research and Creative Activity.
In 2004, Professor Bisgaard became the second recipient of the Box Medal, an award issued by the European Network for Business and Industrial Statistics, for outstanding contributions to industrial statistics. Professor Bisgaard was a sought-after consultant by many leading firms, including Samsung-Corning, Hewlett-Packard, Bell Labs, General Motors, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, S. C. Johnson, Mercury Marine, Philips, and Samsung-Corning.
Before joining the Isenberg School, Professor Bisgaard was Professor of Industrial Statistics at the University of Amsterdam (2001-2002), and professor at the University of St. Gallen's Institute for Technology Management in Switzerland, where he directed its Department of Quality Management and Technology (1999-2001). In 1999, he founded the 600-member European Network of Business and Industrial Statistics. At the University of Wisconsin, he was professor of Industrial Engineering from 1987-1998 and director of the Center for Quality and Productivity Improvement from 1994-1998.
Professor Bisgaard was born in Umanak, Greenland on June 17, 1951. He earned his Ph.D. degree in statistics from the University of Wisconsin Madison and his M.S. degree in engineering from the Technical University of Denmark, in Copenhagen. Professor Bisgaard lived in Pelham, Massachusetts with his wife, Sue Ellen.
