Dr. Riccardo Dell'Anna (1955-2005) was an exceptional example of a business-based quality academician. He was an executive vice president responsible for the automotive bearing business unit of SKF, the Swedish based multinational where he had previously served as Vice President of Quality. He was the president of the AICQ Piemontese (the North West Italian Quality Society federate to the Italian Association for Quality) as well as president of the European Organization for Quality (EOQ).

This prize recognizes excellence in doctoral level dissertation research in the theory and application of quality control, quality assurance, quality improvement, and total quality management, and, it is also applied to the engineering, statistical, managerial, and behavioral foundations that are related to these fields.