Celebrating Our Profession

2007-05-03T15:07:30-04:00

I recently returned from this year's Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) Gala. This is certainly the premier civil engineering event in our country. Winning an OPAL award is one of the highest recognitions that a person or project can receive on a worldwide scale. OPAL presents an excellent annual opportunity to celebrate the civil engineering profession and bring the status of civil engineers to the forefront of our country's professionals.

During the gala, we celebrated engineering achievements including the OCEA Award finalists and winner-the Golden Gate Bridge Seismic Retrofit Project, in addition to honoring five individuals for their lifelong contributions to the civil engineering profession. I believe it is important that our professional colleagues participate in this type of event because in a sense, this event allows us to tell the world what we do, how it is important and its impact on making the world a better place. Without our ports, international commerce would be greatly reduced. Without airports and highways, travel would come to a screeching halt. I think that when concluding an awards ceremony such as this, it is important to not only look at whose names appear on the plaques, but in the overall, collective contributions to society that we in the design and construction industry make each and every day. As civil engineers, we should look to the future with great anticipation...to dreams not yet built, to projects not yet conceived.

What do you think are some of the leading contributions that civil engineers have made to society?

Best in Show

2007-01-04T11:32:51-05:00

A while back, I entered our pet bulldog, Bentley, in a dog show in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Despite his name, I don't know that I'd call him the Rolls Royce of the breed. But he did manage to walk away with the "best of breed" award. After the show was over, I took Bentley home with his prize ribbon and the first thing my wife asked was: "How many other bulldogs were there?" Sure enough, there were no other bulldogs competing in the show. So the way I look at it, I ended up with a dog with a prize, not a prize-winning dog!

Certainly this story makes me realize that awards are much more meaningful when there is a bit more competition. ASCE has 80 Society awards that draw a wide array of applicants from seasoned professors to students. While every award given out by ASCE meets the technical and professional criteria deemed necessary for the award, it is good to know that the award recipients were selected out of a large group of qualified applicants. With that in mind, I believe it is important for our members to think about those professionals around them who would be excellent nominees for one of ASCE's awards. If everyone did this in their respective Sections, we'd have volumes of competition, making these already prestigious awards all the more valued and cherished.

Recently ASCE took the guesswork out of figuring out who is available for which awards, by creating a document that outlines reward requirements. This tool makes it that much easier to nominate a qualified engineer in your area. Visit http://www.asce.org/pressroom/honors/ to see which awards you or your colleagues are eligible for. Who knows, maybe you could walk away with the prize this year and be a prize-winner.

President's Blog

Celebrating Our Profession

Best in Show