2025 IASA Award of Recognition - Will Prentice

Announcing the 2025 IASA Award of Recognition: Congratulations to Will Prentice

The IASA Executive Board is delighted to announce that Will Prentice, of the Phonogrammarchiv, has been awarded the 2025 IASA Award of Recognition for his outstanding contributions to the association and the field of audiovisual archiving.

Pio Pellizzarri, Vice-Chair of the Training & Education Committee, with help from Nadja Wallaszkovits, Vice-Chair of the Technical Committee, write:

Will is someone who always comes across as very modest, which sometimes makes his great achievements for IASA, and in particular the TC and T&E committees, seem inconspicuous. However, with his calm manner, Will has done an enormous amount for us.

First as a member of the TC, where he contributed to several of the publications, most notably TC 03 (4th Edition, 2017, co-edited by Will Prentice and Lars Gaustad) as well as TC 04, which has since become an internationally recognised ‘bible’ for technicians and for the preservation of audiovisual cultural heritage. Then, first as Vice-Chair and later as Chair of the T&E, where he led the committee with his calm but determined and clear manner, sharing his expertise as a technician and his experience as a trainer with everyone.  

A particular achievement is his work on the ‘IASA Training Support Taskforce’ to optimise the IASA’s training and continuing education offerings, especially with regard to improving the sustainability of these training courses. This was a problem that the T&E had been discussing for a long time, as the many training courses offered often had little long-term effect. On the basis of this work, the T&E was able to develop a new training programme, which has been very successful over the last five years and is showing initial results in terms of sustainability. The successes achieved in one of IASA's most important tasks, namely training and further education, are largely thanks to Will.

Through his calm, clear, and determined leadership, Will has advanced one of IASA’s most important missions: strengthening training and continuing education in our field. His work has empowered colleagues, fostered knowledge-sharing, and built lasting capacity in audiovisual preservation.

The Executive Board is proud to recognize Will’s achievements and to add his name to the roster of esteemed colleagues who have shaped IASA’s work over the years.

Congratulations, Will!