For more than 50 years, Rochester Institute of Technology professor emeritus and printing industry expert Frank Romano has dedicated his life to advocacy and education in the printing industry—and the industry has taken notice.

Eastman Kodak Co. is honoring Romano with the Print Ambassador Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was given to Romano at drupa 2012, the world’s largest print trade fair, held last month in Germany.

“It is an honor to be recognized for a life devoted to graphic communication,” Romano says. “It is especially gratifying to receive it in front of my peers in industry media and education.”

Throughout his career, Romano has worked for industry suppliers, written more than 50 books and hundreds of articles, served as a professor, addressed professional groups around the world and consulted with most of the major suppliers in the industry.

In presenting the award, Kodak’s CEO Antonio Perez noted: “Frank has played a key role in helping us all understand the dramatic shifts in technology that have occurred over the last few decades. He has a unique gift for helping us see how the past is influencing the future and why that future is so exciting.”

Romano is recognized as a leading authority on graphic arts technology and trends, and in 1977 founded TypeWorld (laterElectronic Publishing), one of the industry’s leading trade publications throughout the desktop and digital printing revolution. He went on to launch other magazines, wrote the first report on on-demand digital printing in 1980 and ran the first conference on the subject in 1985.

“The term ‘Print Ambassador’ certainly fits when talking about Frank and reflects his personal and professional commitment to advancing the medium of print,” Perez says.

Romano previously served as administrative chair of RIT’s School of Printing Management and Sciences. He is a world-renowned expert on printing, multi-media, graphic communications and publishing. Romano has closely analyzed the future of newspapers, magazines, libraries and bookstores in a digital age. He is involved in issues surrounding the Internet including copyright and trademark issues, graphics, electronic publishing and online publishing and Internet commerce. Romano was involved in the development of an electronic version of the Congressional Record.

Previous recipients of Kodak’s Print Ambassador Lifetime Achievement Award include Rance Crain, president of Crain Communications, and The Rt. Hon. the Lord Heseltine CH, chairman, Haymarket Group Limited.