Determination of Lambda_QCD from the measured energy dependence of <1-Thrust>

We directly fit the experimentally measured energy dependence of the average value of 1-Thrust, <1-T>, over the e^+e^- centre-of-mass energy range Q=14 - 172 GeV to the QCD expectation obtained by integrating up the evolution equation for d<1-T>/dlog Q in terms of <1-T>. We fit for Lambda_QCD, uncalculated O(alpha_S^3) and higher perturbative corrections parameterized by the scheme invariant rho_2, and the parameter lambda which characterizes the magnitude of the leading 1/Q power corrections anticipated for <1-T>. A 3-parameter fit yields Lambda_QCD=245^{+20}{-17} MeV, rho_2=-16\pm 11 and lambda=0.27^{+0.12}{-0.10} GeV, equivalent to alpha_S(M_Z)=0.1194 \pm 0.0014. In this approach, there is no error associated with the choice of the renormalization scale mu.