Pierre Gy Sampling Gold Medal

A highlight of every WCSB is the presentation of the Pierre Gy Sampling Gold Medal (PGSGM). The first award committee was elected before WCSB1, and has subsequently been augmented by the successive award recipients. An original medal design, Figure 1, stems from Messieurs Pitard, Esbensen and Francois-Bongarcon and was taken over by the highly effective WCSB4 committee under the inspired leadership of chairman Sean Duggan, who was also instrumental in securing funding for the minting of five medals.

The Pierre Gy Sampling Gold Medal is awarded to individuals who have made “significant contributions to teaching and dissemination of the theory and practice of sampling”. While the history of the PGSGM award presentations turned out to be convoluted and complex, it suffices to relate that the first recipient, selected with the help of Pierre Gy himself, was A.G. Royle (UK) as a sign of respect for his valuable help (teaching, translation) at a critical time in the career of Pierre Gy himself. Royle translated Gy’s famous book: Sampling for Analytical Purposes (1998). Most unfortunately the awardee was unable to attend WCSB1 for its presentation due to serious illness in his family. It was therefore left to the WCSB1 chairman to make the presentation at a later, more appropriate, time. This first turned out to be possible in 2010, when “Le bon Royle” (Pierre Gy’s own expression) was finally presented with his medal in his retirement home in the Cotswolds, UK.

After WCSB1, problems regarding the required sponsoring for the gold medal production ran into problems, which resulted in delays for the physical medal presentations at the time of the next conferences. A concerted effort finally solved the problems in time for WCSB4, when five medals could finally be minted and three could be presented simultaneously (a report of the presentation of the WCSB1 medal was also given at WCSB4). The official chronology of the PGSGM award could therefore now be made up-to-date, and which hereafter goes into the official record in the following manner: