2012 PSEC Engineer of the Year Awards
The 2012 PSEC Awards Committee is pleased to announce the following engineers who have been selected for recognition at the annual PSEC Awards Banquet to be held on February 18, 2012 at the Museum of Flight.
- Academic Engineer-of-the-Year - Dr. Steven Kramer, P.E. Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- Industry Engineer-of-the-Year - Linda M. S. Thomas Nominated by the Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
- Government Engineer-of-the-Year - James W. Miller, P.E. Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
- Engineering Educator-of-the-Year, The Kenneth W. Porter Award - Charles S. Beard Nominated by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
- Young Engineer-of-the-Year - Kimberly Hicks Nominated by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
- Professional Engineer-of-the-Year - John V. Christiansen, P. E. Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
2012 PSEC Awards Banquet
The 54th Annual Puget Sound Engineering Council (PSEC) Engineering Awards Banquet will be held Saturday, February 18th, 2012 at 6:00 PM. The event will be held in the Skyline Room at the Museum of Flight at King County International Airport (Boeing Field). Dr. Bonnie Dunbar will deliver the keynote address, titled: The Space Shuttle: A Triumph of Engineering Excellence.
Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar Bonnie
J. Dunbar Ph.D., NAE, 
Retired NASA Astronaut
Prior to joining Boeing, Dunbar owned her own aerospace and STEM education consulting company, Dunbar International LLC. Among her projects, she led the effort to bring a retiring Space Shuttle to Washington State and helped complete fundraising for Aviation High School, which is being co-located at the Seattle Museum of Flight. Previously, she was President and CEO of the Seattle Museum of Flight for five years. During her tenure at the museum, K-12 STEM programs were expanded to reach nearly 140,000 students per year. Dunbar also founded the Washington Aerospace Scholars program for high school juniors in partnership with NASA and the State of Washington and expanded participation in the Aviation Learning Center, the Aerospace Camp Experience and Challenger Learning Center. Dunbar also strengthened ties to regional community colleges, engineering societies and university engineering departments. Earlier, Dunbar retired from NASA following a distinguished 27-year career as a spaceflight mission controller, an astronaut and member of the Senior Executive Service.
As a NASA mission specialist astronaut and veteran of five space flights, Dunbar logged more than 50 days in space. Dunbar trained in Star City Russia for 13 months and flew the first docking flight between the Russian Space Station MIR and the Space Shuttle in 1995. Dunbar served as payload commander on two flights, participated in a 13 day Spacelab flight as well as the eighth docking mission to MIR. Following her flight career, Dunbar served in the Senior Executive Service for seven years, holding various senior management positions at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. and at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). As Assistant Director at NASA JSC, Dunbar founded the annual NASA-University Engineering Research Summit and was responsible for university relations and grant management.
Prior to working for NASA, Dunbar was a senior production operations research engineer with Rockwell International Space Division where she helped develop equipment and processes for manufacturing the thermal protection system for the Space Shuttle. For her work, she was named Rockwell Engineer of the Year. Earlier, Dunbar was a visiting scientist to Harwell Laboratories in Oxford, England and a Systems Analyst with Boeing Computer Services. Dunbar received a Ph. D. in engineering from the University of Houston, master’s and bachelor’s degrees in engineering from the University of Washington and graduated from the Kennedy School for Senior Managers in Government at Harvard University.
Dunbar is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Fellow and Life member of the American Ceramic Society, Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, an elected member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and was elected to the National Academy of Engineers in 2002.
She has been awarded the NASA Space Flight Medal five times, the NASA Exceptional Leadership Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the Washington State Medal of Merit. For her service to engineering education, she was awarded the American Association of Mechanical Engineers Ralph Roe Award in 2009 and in 2012 will be awarded the University of Washington’s College of Engineering Diamond Award for lifetime public service. Dunbar is also a founding board member for the Washington State Academy of Sciences and holds seven honorary university doctoral degrees.
Dunbar grew up in the Yakima Valley of Washington State on a cattle ranch homesteaded by her parents in 1948. She learned to fly with the Rockwell Flying Club at the Orange County Airport in 1977 and maintains her pilot’s license. In addition, she logged more than 1,000 hours as co-pilot in NASA T-38s as part of Spaceflight Readiness Training for the astronaut corps.
After the speech the following Awards will be presented:
- Academic Engineer-of-the-Year
- Industry Engineer-of-the-Year
- Government Engineer-of-the-Year
- Young Engineer-of-the-Year
- Professional Engineer-of-the-Year
- Engineering Educator-of-the-Year, The Kenneth W. Porter Award
Register to Attend 2012 Awards Banquet
The 2012 PSEC Awards Banquet will be held at the Museum of Flight on Febrary 18th. Please consider attending. You may purchase tickets at a $10 discount before January 31st. Catering and cash bar will be provided by McCormick and Schmick's.