Awards
USSD Awards & Recognitions
USSD's awards program recognizes individuals and organizations that make significant contributions to the dam and levee industry. The awards and recognitions are presented during the USSD Annual Conference.
Please note the follow awards reflect various updates and changes.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Recognizes USSD members who have contributed significantly to dams and levees, through their leadership, innovation and technical contributions.
2024 Recipient
David Paul
Paul GeoTek Engineering, LLC
Excellence in Constructed Project Award
Recognizes a water resource project with significant contribution to the dam community and/or to society that met the challenges of the nation’s aging infrastructure in an era of limited financial resources and increasing environmental awareness. The award will honor the team of professionals responsible for the project.
2024 Sponsor:
2024 Recipient
Tuolumne Log Pond Dam Spillway Upgrade
Owner: Tuolumne Economic Development Authority, Inc. (TEDA)
Consultant: GEI Consultants, Inc.
Contractor: Granite Construction Company
Exceptional Young Professional of the Year Award
Recognizes an individual age 35 or under who, through both their career and community involvement, exemplifies the following four tenets: advocate, educate, collaborate and cultivate.
2024 Sponsor:
2024 Recipient
Chris Krage
GEI Consultants, Inc.
President's Award
Bi-annual award selected by outgoing USSD President recogninzing a member who has provided exceptional service to USSD.
2024 Recipient
Catrice Jones
US Society on Dams
Outstanding Paper and Presentation Award
Recognizes the outstanding paper presented during each USSD Conference.
2024 Recipient
Bryan Bledsoe, USACE
Mitigating Impacts of PLC in Post-Tensioned Anchor Grout
Outstanding Young Professional Paper and Presentation Award
Recognizes the outstanding paper presented by a young professional during each USSD Conference.
2024 Recipient
Christopher Krage, GEI Consultants, Inc.
Tuolumne Log Pond Dam Spillway Improvement Project
Outstanding Poster Presentation
Recognizes the outstanding poster presentation during each USSD Conference.
2024 Recipient
Not Awarded
Public Safety, Security, and Emergency Management for Dams Recognition
Recognize an individual, organization or project for their contributions in any of the public safety, security and emergency management (PSSEM) related to the following areas:
- Innovative contributions in adapting PSSEM to a dam project or water retention structure, including levees.
- Support or lead PSSEM education related to the dam industry.
- Contribution to and participation in various PSSEM related committees, groups or organizations.
- Program(s) that sets a new PSSEM standard for the industry to adopt.
- Share experiences and best practices to prevent a public safety and/or security incident or repeat of an incident.
- Commitment to personnel awareness and training on matters of PSSEM.
- Serve as an example and encourage advancement in PSSEM through presentation of cases of excellence, best practices and programmatic approaches.
2024 Sponsor:
2024 Recipient
Bashar Sudah and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Kenneth D. Hansen Concrete Dam Paper Award (NEW)
2025 Submission Deadline TBD
This award, which will be funded annually by Ken Hansen, will include a $10,000 prize for a paper focused on concrete dams, with the intent being to instill greater confidence for owners, engineers, and regulators in the benefits of innovative design and construction techniques of concrete dams. Ken identifies concrete dams as “First Class Dams,” meaning they do not erode when overtopped nor settle when shaken in a seismic event.
About Kenneth D. Hansen
Ken Hansen was born in New York City in 1931 and moved with his family to Albuquerque when he was a teen. He graduated high school early and entered the University of New Mexico after receiving a half-tuition scholarship of $42.50 per semester. While at UNM he joined the New Mexico Air National Guard and was called to active duty in the Air Force for 18 months during the Korean War. After being discharged, Ken used the GI Bill to re-enroll at UNM and complete his B.S. degree in Architectural Engineering.
Read more in the Fall 2022 issue of The Bulletin.
The intentions of the prize include:
- Recognize an original, unpublished paper that adheres to the tenants of the award as described. Papers submitted for the 2023 or 2024 USSD Annual Conference may be considered.
- To instill greater confidence for owners, engineers, and regulators in the benefits of innovative design and construction techniques of concrete dams, which are also identified by Ken as “First Class Dams.” (Note: “First Class Dams,” as defined by Ken, are dams that do not erode when overtopped nor settle when shaken in a seismic event).
- Focus on practical and innovative solutions that make concrete dams easier to design and construct. The prize is not intended to showcase advanced structural analyses, numerical analyses, or other similar analytical and/or computer- generated applications, means, and methods related to concrete dams.
Potential Topics Include:
- Conditions where only a concrete dam should be considered.
- Design of concrete dams on non-rock foundations case studies.
- Advantages of concrete dams over earth dams – a listing.
- Did you consider all cost related items in your comparative dam type selection study.
- Effect of duration of infrequent high intensity floods and earthquakes on dam types.
- What are all the risks and costs associated when a concrete dams vs earth dams subjected to earthquakes with special emphasis of duration of strong shaking.
- Why an owner may not want the estimated lowest first cost dam type.
- Conditions where a concrete dam most likely will n=be the lowest total cost alternative.
- Re-analysis of dam failure data concrete vs earth dam failures with greater emphasis on more recent failures.