This prestigious award is the vision and imaging industry's top leadership award.

(Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA) Andrew Wilson, Editor of Vision Systems Design magazine, was presented with the 2013 AIA Achievement Award during a ceremony held today at AIA's 21st Annual Business Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA. This prestigious award is the vision and imaging industry's top leadership award. Wilson was nominated by AIA members and was selected from a highly qualified pool of candidates by the AIA Board of Directors. He is being honored for his long history of outstanding contributions to the vision and imaging industry.

"Andy has been a long time advocate for the vision and imaging industry and I'm happy to see his name among the influential group of leaders who have been given this award," said Jeff Burnstein, AIA President. "He has been instrumental in introducing vision and imaging technologies to a broad range of industries throughout the world. He has contributed to the education of current vision users on emerging technologies within the vision industry, as well as exposing potential users to all that vision has to offer."

Wilson was the Founding Editor of Vision Systems Design magazine and has written numerous technical articles on image processing, machine vision and computer science for the past twenty-five years. By providing readers with specific examples of how such technology can be used in OEM applications, Wilson has strived to show how lighting, computer interfaces, software and displays and other OEM components are used in applications ranging from scientific to industrial machine vision applications.

In 1982, Wilson was instrumental in launching Electronic Imaging magazine, a publication later purchased by PennWell Corporation. Wilson is a graduate of Warwick University in England, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree.

The annual award, sponsored by the AIA, has been given since 1991 and honors one industry leader for outstanding contributions in promoting market acceptance of industrial and/or scientific imaging. Among the past winners are industry leaders such as John Stack, Zygo Corporation; Robert Steinke, DVT Corporation; Joseph Christenson, Nonin Medical, Inc.; Toshi Hori, GEViCAM; Don Cochran, Pressco Technology Inc.; David Dechow, Aptúra Machine Vision Solutions; the late Dr. Steven Case, CyberOptics Corporation; Dr.-Ing. Norbert Stein, VITRONICS; Dr. Savvas Chamberlain, DALSA Corporation; Perry West, Automated Vision Systems, Inc.; Amir Novini, Applied Vision Company; Pat Costa, RVSI, Inc.; Nello Zuech, Vision Systems International; the late Stan Karandanis, Datacube; Dwight Carlson, Perceptron; Ken Levy, KLA-Tencor; and Dr. Robert Shillman, Cognex Corporation.

The award is presented each year at the AIA's Business Conference, a members-only event that brings key industry executives together for networking, important machine vision business discussions and presentations that explore emerging markets and new technologies.

About AIA
Founded in 1984 to advance the understanding and use of imaging and vision technologies and to drive global expansion and growth through education and promotion, AIA now represents over 310 vision suppliers, system integrators, users, researchers, and consulting firms from 32 countries. AIA is best known for The Vision Show (April 15-17, 2014 in Chicago); vision and imaging standards such as GigE Vision®, Camera Link®, Camera Link HS™ and USB3 Vision™; the Automate Show (March 23-26, 2015 in Chicago); the annual AIA Business Conference (January 22-24, 2014 in Orlando); the Certified Vision Professional program; AIA Certified System Integrator company program; and Vision Online, the world's leading online resource for vision information.

AIA is part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), the not-for-profit umbrella association serving AIA, the Robotic Industries Association (RIA) and the Motion Control Association (MCA). For more information on AIA, visit Vision Online or contact AIA Headquarters at (734) 994-6088.