SOTIRIOS J. VAHAVIOLOS, Ph.D., RECEIVES THE GOLD MEDAL AWARD FROM ACOUSTIC EMISSION WORKING GROUP (AEWG)

Princeton Junction, NJ - June 2005 - At the 48th AEWG meeting in Houston, Texas, Sotirios J. Vahaviolos, Ph.D., President and CEO of the MISTRAS Holdings Group, received the Acoustic Emission Working Group's Gold Medal Award. The award, presented May 11th 2005, honors Dr. Vahaviolos for "his many and varied contributions to the field of Acoustic Emission (AE), including his early use of AE to monitor manufacturing processes in industry, his leadership of companies providing AE instrumentation and testing services throughout the world and his production of AE within the worldwide NDT community."

Founded in 1967, The AEWG was formed by a group of engineers, scientists and their peers who invented and developed AE technology, raising it to the level of all other established NDT techniques that are certified by legal standards bodies around the world. The Gold Medal is awarded only by a unanimous vote of all past Gold Medal recipients and officers of the AEWG. The Gold Medal is the highest award for the Technical Working Group.

Dr. Vahaviolos stated "I am very proud to have been chosen for this prestigious award at a time when its unanimous vote requirements included business competitors. Their trust and support for the award humbles me, while technical excellence and independence is preserved."