CivMin professors, as well as two Master’s students, have received recognition in the form of awards from professional organizations. The Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) made its awards public May 27, though usually reserving the announcement as a surprise for a ceremony at an annual conference. The American Concrete Institute (ACI) announced the ACI Foundation award recipients with an online release.
Prof. Khandker Nurul Habib has been selected to receive the Sandford Fleming Award from the CSCE. The award recognizes outstanding contributions by a civil engineer to transportation engineering research and/or practice in Canada.
Habib has been a professor at the University of Toronto since 2010. He received his B.Sc. (2000) and M.Sc. (2002) degrees in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology. He received his PhD (2007) from the University of Toronto.
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Prof. Jeff Packer, along with co-authors Jens Kuhn and YuJing Fan, have been selected to receive the Casimir Gzowski Award from the CSCE for the paper Rectangular hollow section webs under transverse compression (cjce-2018-0485). The distinction is awarded annually for the best civil engineering paper in surveying, structural engineering or heavy construction.
Packer is gracious in sharing the limelight. “This “best paper award” is super recognition of excellent research performed by two talented graduate students – YuJing Fan (experimental work) and Jens Kuhn (numerical work) – which was directed at addressing issues with the Canadian steel structures design standard, CSA S16.”
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Prof. Frank Vecchio has been recognized with two awards: the Arthur J. Boase Award from the American Concrete Institute (ACI) and the A.B. Sanderson Award from the CSCE.
The Arthur J. Boase Award of the Concrete Research Council, established in 1971, is given in recognition of a person, persons, or an organization for outstanding research in the structural concrete field, or for outstanding contributions to the advancement of concrete technology through application of the results of structural concrete research. The award is a plaque suitably inscribed with the name of the recipient and the citation.
The A.B. Sanderson Award is made to a member of CSCE who has, in the opinion of the Selection Committee, made an outstanding contribution to the field of structural engineering in Canada. This contribution may be either in the area of development, design or education.
Vecchio remarks, “The ACI award is in recognition of career achievements, and thus important to me as I wind down my work and seque into retirement. The CSCE award is also special to me as it is a ‘tip of the cap’ by colleagues for having made some contribution to my profession in this
great country.”
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Prof. Doug Hooton was previously named to Fellow of the Society with CSCE.
As part of conditions for the award, besides an exemplary career and credentials, a nominee must have a minimum of 10 years of professional experience and shall have been a member of CSCE [Life Member (LMCSCE), Member (MCSCE), Associate Member (ASCSCE)] in good standing for a minimum of 5 consecutive years as of the nomination closing date.
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The CSCE annual conference, originally scheduled for May 27-30 in Saskatoon, has been cancelled. All 2020 awards recipients will be honoured at the 2021 annual conference in Niagara Falls, Ont.
By Phill Snel