2010 PSEC Awards Banquet

The 52nd Annual Puget Sound Engineering Council (PSEC) Engineering Awards Banquet will be held Saturday, February 20th, 2010 at 6:00 PM. PSEC is excited to bring the banquet back to the Museum of Flight at King County International Airport (Boeing Field). Ron Tober

Ron Tober, Sound Transit

We invite you to join us for this unique opportunity to celebrate the profession of engineering and honor the achievements of our colleagues.

Ron Tober, Deputy CEO of Sound Transit will deliver the keynote address. He will be talking about the completion of the LINK Light Rail and the future plans for light rail in the Puget Sound Region. Tober has more than 35 years of experience managing transit operations and capital projects, most recently as CEO of the Charlotte Area Transit System, a role in which he oversaw the opening of North Carolina's first light rail line as part of managing an integrated system of bus, paratransit, ride-share and vanpool programs spanning six counties. He previously served as Director of Transit for the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle (Metro) from 1982 to 1988 and as General Manager and Secretary-Treasurer for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority from 1988 to 1999.

Tober has been active on numerous transit industry committees and served as chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and as president of the Ohio Public Transit Association. APTA members recognized him as the Outstanding Public Transportation Manager for 2005, and in October 2008 he was elected to the North Carolina Transportation Hall of Fame. Tober was selected as 1990 Most Valuable Public Official-Special District by City and State magazine. In 1997, The American Society for Public Administration extended him the Ernest J. Bohn Award, its honor for excellence. In 1999, he received the Executive of the Year Award from the Conference of Minority Transit Officials in recognition for his efforts in hiring and promoting minorities and women.

The evening's honorees will include the 2010 PSEC Academic Engineer of the Year, Industry Engineer of the Year, Government Engineer of the Year, Young Engineer of the Year, and Professional Engineer of the Year.

Early Registration is available through February 5th!

Events

2009 PSEC Engineer of the Year Awards

The annual Puget Sound Engineering Council (PSEC) Awards Banquet was held at the Palisade Restaurant February 21, 2009, from 5:30 pm to 10:00 pm. The banquet concludes Engineering Week activities for PSEC, celebrates the engineering profession and recognizes the achievements of members of the profession who have excelled. The general atmosphere was festive, the food was good, and service was prompt and well executed. Master of Ceremonies Kalan Guiley set the tone for the evening by reading excerpts of President Herbert Hoover's eloquent description of the profession of engineering:

Engineering. It is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standard of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege. ..To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope.

No doubt as years go by the people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew...But the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professions may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.

Dr. Donald Brownlee, PhD, Professor of Astronomy at the University of Washington, delivered a unique and astonishing keynote address to the gathering. Dr. Brownlee is extensively involved with the laboratory study of primitive materials from asteroids and comets and he is the Principle Investigator on NASA's Stardust comet sample return mission, which collected comet samples and returned them to Earth. The program was an account of aspects of science and engineering involved in the Stardust project, and some of the surprising information that has emerged from analysis of the comet samples that were retrieved. The challenges in developing a vehicle to travel into space (more 3 billion miles so far!), photograph the comet, collect samples, return the samples to earth, and continue on the journey, involve experimental materials and original techniques that almost defy the imagination. Studies of the retrieved materials by scientists around the world, using the most advanced electron microscopes and particle accelerators, showed the presence of materials that had been subjected to the highest and lowest temperatures imaginable in the comet trail dust. This surprising mixture of materials has provided the basis for new hypotheses about the beginning of our universe.

Dr. Brownlee has received numerous awards and honors, including the J. Lawrence Smith medal from the National Academy of Sciences, the Leonard medal from the Meteoritical Society, and the NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement. He is also a member of the UW Astrobiology program and he has recently co-authored two books with UW paleontologist Peter Ward on the Earth's evolution to become a habitat for advanced life and the remarkable aspects of the processes involved as viewed from the perspectives of space and time.

Concluding the evening, PSEC President-Elect and Banquet Chair Kalan Guiley presented the following awards to an outstanding group of engineers possessing remarkable achievements:

Pictures from the event will be available through March 10th. Prints and/or digital images can be ordered by contacting Doan Tran at dtphotography08@gmail.com or 425-239-5912.

Proclamations

Several proclamations were issued to mark the 2009 Engineers Week. See the links below.

Past Events