New Environmental Engineering Awards for a New ASCE

As you all know, ASCE has been and continues to be in the process of reinventing itself for the new century. An important development for environmental engineering has been the establishment by ASCE of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute ~EWRI!, into which was incorporated the old Environmental Engineering Division and a number of other former ASCE divisions. The EWRI is organized in councils, including the Environmental Multi-Media Council, the Hydraulics and Waterways Council, the Infrastructure Council, the Irrigation and Drainage Council, the Planning and Management Council, and the Watershed Council. Each of the councils has started with a fresh look at current issues and needs of our profession. There is a new energy and enthusiasm for forging new directions for ASCE. It is an exciting time for our organization. When EWRI was established in 1999, the old Environmental Engineering Awards Committee was relocated to the Environmental Multi-Media Council ~EMMC! after discussions with the leaders of the transition effort. The EMMC Awards Committee, which I chair, has continued traditional functions which include the following: ~1! reviewing papers in the Journal of Environmental Engineering and the Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic and Radioactive Waste Management to make recommendations for three EWRI Awards ~Hering Medal, Horner Award, Greeley Award! and five Society awards ~Norman Medal, Croes Medal, Wellington Prize, Collingwood Prize, and State-of-the-Art Award!; ~2! making recommendations for the Huber Research Prize, based on submitted nominations; and ~3! nominating candidates and make a recommendation for the Freese Award and Lecture. All of the awards listed in ~1! are for published papers. They have varying criteria, which are described in detail at the ASCE Web site. All authors or potential authors are encouraged to review the focus and criteria for these prestigious, paper-related awards. Some have narrow criteria, while others have a broad scope of eligibility. A criterion for most of the awards is that at least one of the authors is a member of ASCE. Authors submitting papers to the Journal and to the Practice Periodical should remember to note their membership status. Of course, all authors are strongly encouraged to join ASCE. While ASCE has numerous awards for published papers related to environmental engineering, there are few awards to recognize professional achievement. With encouragement from the leadership of EMMC, particularly Dr. Cecil Lue Hing and founding EMMC Chair Wendy Cohen, the EMMC Awards Committee explored new awards that EMMC could offer for different kinds of professional achievement. In Spring 2001 the committee proposed and received approval for three new, broader-scope awards. Initial winners will be selected in 2002. The three new ASCE EWRI EMMC awards are these: Award for Achievement in Environmental Engineering Education—to honor an individual who has made outstanding contributions to environmental engineering education, both at the individual’s home institution and more broadly. Award for Achievement in Environmental Engineering Government Service—to honor an individual who has made outstanding contributions to environmental engineering as practiced in government and service to the public, both at the individual’s organization and more broadly. Award for Achievement in Private Practice of Environmental Engineering—to honor an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the private practice of environmental engineering, both at the individual’s organization and more broadly. These awards will be given for cumulative achievement or for a specific project, based on nominations from ASCE members. A nomination package will include a resume for the nominee and six supporting letters. The requirements for the sources of the supporting letters vary among the three awards. For each award, service to the profession will be used as a criterion to help distinguish among highly qualified nominees. Details about nomination procedures are available at the EMMC Web site: www.asce.org/ inst–found/ewri–comm–multimedia.cfm. Only one of each award will be given annually, and each award will consist of a plaque. No award will be given when a worthy candidate is not identified. Only members of ASCE are eligible to receive the awards. Nominations will be considered valid for three years. The deadline for nominations will be August 1 of each year, with subsequent evaluation and recommendation of winners to the EMMC officers by November. Awards will be presented at a spring or summer EWRI conference in the following year. These new awards provide a great opportunity for us to honor colleagues who have contributed to the civil and environmental engineering profession in diverse ways. Please consider nominating a deserving ASCE colleague for one of the new awards.