Awards & Honors

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Awards & Honors

Each year, the ASCE Texas Section members celebrate outstanding individuals and projects within the Section and throughout our civil engineering community. These deserving individuals are nominated by their peers in recognition of their service and achievements. This is your opportunity to nominate a project or colleague whom you believe is deserving of special recognition by ASCE Texas Section.

The following awards recognize engineers who provide exemplary service to the Texas Section, their local ASCE Branch, and the general public through their professional work and volunteer efforts. Expand a section below to explore each of the award categories. Most awards are presented annually during the Texas Civil Engineering Conference (CECON).

TEXAS SECTION AWARDS

The following Texas Civil Engineering Awards were established with the objective of recognizing engineers who provide exemplary service to the Section and the general public through their professional work and volunteer efforts.

  • Award of Honor
  • Professional Service Award
  • Service to the People Award
  • Professional Service to Students Award
  • Government Civil Engineer Award
  • John A. Focht Jr Citizen Engineer Award
  • History & Heritage Award
  • Lifetime Service Award
  • Young Civil Engineer Award
  • Outstanding Student Civil Engineering Award

Texas Section Awards Previous Winners

2024 ASCE Texas Section Award Recipients

 

Nominations are open. Deadline May 15, 2025 

To submit your nominations, find the link below

2025 Award Nomination Form

Contact Honors Committee Chair Michael Gurka for more information.

TEXAS HISTORIC CIVIL ENGINEERING LANDMARK

The Texas HCEL Designation serves to acknowledge civil engineers, preserve knowledge, and remind the public of the role that civil engineering plays in our lives by recognizing significant projects completed in past years.

Previous Texas Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks

Nomination Procedures

Contact History & Heritage Committee Chair Melinda Luna for more information.

TEXAS OUTSTANDING CIVIL ENGINEERING ACHIEVEMENT (OCEA) AWARD

The Texas Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement (Texas OCEA) Award may be given on annual basis to a completed project that demonstrates the greatest contribution to civil engineering progress and society as a whole. It must have been designed and/or built in Texas.

Previous Texas OCEA Winners

Previous Texas OCEA Award of Merit Recognition

Nomination details for the 2026 Texas OCEA Award are coming soon.

Contact office@texasce.org for more information.

Texas Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award

Outstanding Faculty Awards are given each year by the Texas Section Student Activities Committee to Faculty Advisors who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and support to their ASCE Texas Student Chapter.

The award is presented to a Faculty advisor and their Student Chapter during the annual ASCE Frontier Student Symposium along with a $500.00 monetary prize to the Faculty Advisor and a $500.00 monetary prize to the Student Chapter, both of which are provided by the Texas Civil Engineering Foundation (TCEF), along with recognition on TCEF’s website landing page and a digital ribbon to post on their social profile or share with their departments. In addition, the winning nomination will be automatically nominated for the ASCE Global Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award by ASCE Texas Section.

Nominations will be solicited January through February and are due on or around February 28 each year. A Call for Nominations document will be prepared listing the Global evaluation criteria along with additional Texas Section criteria such as subscribing membership status. The Student Activities Committee will review the nominations and select a recipient to recommend to the Texas Section Board. The Texas Section Board must then approve the recommended recipient at the Spring Board Meeting and the award will be presented during the Frontier Student Symposium.

Rules

  • Advisor must be an ASCE member in good standing at the time of application.
  • Advisor must be serving as a Faculty Advisor with an established ASCE Student Chapter at the time of nomination
  • Advisor must have demonstrated outstanding dedication and commitment to ASCE student members and emphasized the value of ASCE involvement during college and after graduation.
  • Nomination may come from another Faculty Advisor, a Practitioner Advisor, Department Head, Section/Branch Officer, or Student Chapter member.

Nominations

  1. Check back in December 2025 for details on the 2026 nomination timeline.
  2. To nominate, submit a completed nomination form and a personal statement from a student or other advisor.
  3. Send submissions to office@texasce.org

DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS

Branch Full Name Year of Election
Austin Branch James D Murff, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 1981
Austin Branch C. Michael Walton, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 1992
Houston Branch Jerry R. Rogers, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Dist.M.ASCE 1999
Austin Branch David E Daniel, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2007
Dallas Branch Richard W Furlong, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2007
Caprock Branch Kishor Mehta, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE, F.SEI 2007
Brazos Branch Dallas Little, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2011
Austin Branch John E Breen, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2011
Austin Branch Richard L Tucker, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2012
Austin Branch William Howard Espey, Jr., Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, Dist.M.ASCE 2014
Brazos Branch Jean-Louis Briaud, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, Dist.M.ASCE 2014
Houston Branch Thomas T.C. Hsu, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2015
Brazos Branch Vijay P Singh, D.Sc, P.E., Hon.D.WRE, F.EWRI, Dist.M.ASCE 2015
Houston Branch Pol D Spanos, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, F.EMI, Dist.M.ASCE 2015
Austin Branch Thomas J. R. Hughes, Ph.D., P.E., NAS, NAE, F.EMI, Dist.M.ASCE 2015
Austin Branch Kenneth H Stokoe, II, Ph.D., P.E., D.GE, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2016
Austin Branch James O Jirsa, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2017
Corpus Christi Branch Joseph E Minor, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2018
Brazos Branch Jose M Roesset, Ph.D., P.E., NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2018
Houston Branch Roberto Ballarini, Ph.D., P.E., F.EMI, Dist.M.ASCE 2021
Houston Branch Satish Nagarajaiah, Ph.D., F.SEI, Dist.M.ASCE 2021
San Antonio Branch JoAnn P. Browning, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2024
Brazos Branch Anand J. Puppala, Ph.D., P.E., BC.GE, F.ICE, Dist.M.ASCE 2024
Brazos Branch Eyad A. Masad, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE 2024
Houston Branch Reginald DesRoches, Ph.D., F.SEI, NAE, Dist.M.ASCE 2025

EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM AWARD

The Excellence in Journalism Award honors journalists for outstanding coverage of civil engineers, civil engineering projects, and prominent industry issues. Our goal is to recognize journalism that highlights the role of civil engineers and the impact their work has on water supply, transportation, public works projects, the environment, and much more. We also want to recognize journalists that engage with the public in a way that benefits infrastructure initiatives.

Previous Excellence in Journalism Award Honorees

This award has been sunset as of 2022. To learn more about this award, please contact share@texasce.org.