2016-2017 Department Awards and Successes

Aiham Adawi received a USC Award in Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2016/2017) and was on the USC Honour Roll (2016/2017).

Girma Bitsuamlak’s CRC in wind engineering was renewed for the second term (April 2017 – April 2022); was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineering (CSCE); received the Bikila Award (2016) for professional excellence by Bikila Award, a Toronto based community organization (www.Bikilaaward.org, http://bikilaaward.org/news_events/award_winners/index.html)

Ashraf El Damatty received an MBA specialized in Higher Education Management from University College London (UCL), UK; and was inducted as a Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada on April 1st, 2017.

Hesham El Naggar received the Geosynthetics Award from the Canadian Geotechnical Society, in October 2016.

Jason Gerhard received the R. Mohan Mathur Award for Excellence in Teaching; was promoted to full Professor; received the Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science: Superior Achievement Award (Best Overall Group) by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (2017); and a Western Faculty Scholar Award for Internationally Recognized Scholarship (2016).

Horia Hangan was awarded the Industry Innovation Award at the American Association of Wind Engineering 2017 Awards.

Md. Reza Najafi received the EWRI 2017 Best Technical Paper Award (May 2017).

Moncef Nehdi received the Horst Leipholz Medal, for outstanding contributions to engineering materials and mechanics in Canada, CSCE.

Clare Robinson received a Canadian Research Chair Tier II award in Water Quality, From 1 July 2017 – 30 June 2022.

Slobodan Simonovic’s textbook, Floods in a Changing Climate: Risk Management was translated and published in China by the Tsinghua University Press; received an European Water Resources Association (EWRA) Award for outstanding contribution to the field of water resources management (July 2017); and a Distinguished lecture award from the College of Engineering, Florida Atlantic University (March 2017).

Mayram Refan (former Horia Hangan PhD student and Research Assistant, WindEEE) received the Richard Marshall Award for best doctoral thesis related to experimental methods titled “Physical Simulation of Tornado-like Vortices “.  

Haitham Aboshosha, current WT employee, (former PhD student of Ashraf El Damatty and Girma Bitsuamlak) received honorable mention for the Robert Scanlan Award that recognizes the best doctoral thesis related to theoretical advances in the mechanics of wind and wind-structure interaction. 

The WSCE received the third place award in the CSCE student chapters competition at the 2017 CSCE Conference.

CEE Department Contributions to 2016 Annual CSCE Conference: (submitted by M. Bartlett)

Faculty/Staff/Students

  • Mike Bartlett, Chair
  • Maged Youssef, Co-Chair of the Structures Specialty Conference
  • Ian Molnar, Co-Chair of the Environmental Specialty Conference
  • Moncef Nehdi, Chair of the Materials Specialty Conference
  • Girma Bitsuamlak, Chair of the Natural Disaster Mitigation Conference
  • Aiham Adawi, Student Paper Competition Coordinator
  • Connell Miller, Young Professionals Co-ordinator
  • Stephanie Laurence, Volunteers Co-ordinator
  • Caitlin Mancuso, Scheduling
  • Tom Mara, Secretary
  • Li Hao Zhang, Editorial Assistant
  • Sarah Stevenson, Editorial Assistant

Alumni:

  • Anthony Fediw, Co-Chair, Annual General Conference & Co-Chair of Tech. Cttee.
  • Aaron Rozentals, Co-Chair, Ann. General Conference & Co-Chair of Tech. Cttee.
  • Scott Mathers, Co-Chair of the Annual General Conference
  • Brad Schmidt, Co-Chair of the Structures Specialty Conference
  • Sandra Carrelas, Chair of the Environmental Specialty Conference
  • Clarissa Luo, Partnership Committee
  • John Lucas, Historic Sites Committee
  • Colton Horan, Registration Committee
  • Solomon Asantey, Publications Committee
  • Trevor Scott, Technical Secretary
  • Mark Chorostecki, Editorial Assistant