Past Awards
The honors came more than 15 years after Barlow and Proschan published Statistical Theory of Reliability and Life Testing (1975) and more than 25 years after the publication of an earlier joint effort, The Mathematical Theory of Reliability (1965). The two books had a major impact on reliability theory worldwide and established Barlow and Proschan as preeminent scholars in the field.
Ward Whitt of AT&T Bell Laboratories, chairman of the von Neumann Theory Prize Committee, went so far as to say Barlow and Proschan helped define the field of reliability theory.
Whitt cited Barlow and Proschan for making important contributions to all aspects of reliability theory, including stochastic modeling, optimization, statistical inference and engineering design in their books and papers.
They helped develop coherent structure theory, fault tree analysis and network reliability theory, Whitt continued. They formulated and solved a wide range of optimization problems, including ones associated with arrangements, assembly, checking, maintenance, repair and redundancy.