The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) mourns the passing of Mario Osvaldo Wittner, a valued member of the standards and conformity assessment community. Mr. Wittner passed away on March 13, 2020. Mr. Wittner served as European Union (EU) expert for ANSI and a number of standardization organizations, the director general of IRAM, the Argentine Institute of Standardization and Certification (2009), and former chair of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Committee on Conformity Assessment, ISO/CASCO.
He devoted a significant portion of his professional career to the world of quality infrastructure and was a prominent figure in COPANT, the Pan American Standards Commission, for which he served as treasurer for nearly 10 years. He was a conformity assessment advisor at the Secretariat of Domestic Trade - Ministry of Production in Argentina, and a consultant in quality infrastructure, standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment.
Mr. Wittner also served as an EU expert for AENOR, ISO, IDB, UNIDO, ANSI, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (the Germany National Metrology Institute), and BVQI Quality Institute, and for several countries, including Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama, Mozambique, Bulgaria, Nepal, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic.
He was also a coordinator of the delegation of Argentina in the Commission for Conformity Assessment of MERCOSUR Sub-Group 3, and served as an INLAC representative in ISO/CASCO for several working Groups and the Strategic Alliance and Regulatory Group (STAR).
He participated representing Argentine in the MERCOSUR Committee on conformity assessment from 1991 to 2002.
"Mr. Wittner had the respect and admiration of the standardization community, not only in the Americas region, but globally, as he assumed for 4 years with great efficiency and leadership, the Chair of the ISO Committee on Conformity Assessment, ISO/CASCO," CASCO announced.
Among his other accomplishments, Mr. Wittner achieved the 1906 Award from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for his invaluable contributions and to the participation of Latin America in the IEC Conformity Assessment System through COPANT. More recently, Mr. Wittner provided expertise in conformity assessment issues, facilitating on several occasions the meetings and workshops of the COPANT ISO/CASCO Focal Group.
Mr. Wittner earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), and was a professor of general and inorganic chemistry at UADE - Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (1968-2006) and a guest professor in standardization at INCALIN - UNSAM (Universidad de San Martin - Argentina). He was also a professor of postgraduate courses of foreign trade, in the subject of Technical Barriers to Trade - Faculty of Economic Sciences at UBA.