Each year the SlA recognizes outstanding scholarship within the field of industrial archeology with its Robert M. Vogel Prize. The award honors the author of the best article to appear in the Society's journal, lA, within the past three years. Articles under consideration have a clearly stated thesis, a well-constructed narrative, and an understandable conclusion. The analysis of material culture plays an important role in articles considered for the prize, as does the use of high-quality illustrations. The prize consists of a cash award and a wooden foundry pattern and plaque engraved with the recipient's name.

At the 2009 Annual Business Meeting in Pittsburgh, the 2009 Vogel Prize was awarded to Marco Meniketti for "Sugar Mills, Technology, and Environmental Change: A Case Study of Colonial Agro-Industrial Development in the Caribbean" published in lA, Vol. 32, No.1 (2006), pp. 53-80.

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