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.

Nominations will open early September, for the 2027 award cycle.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Recognizes USSD members who have contributed significantly to dams and levees, through their leadership, innovation and technical contributions.

General Criteria

Nominees must be a current member of USSD with a minimum of 20 years of membership. Nominees will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Demonstrate a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion through their leadership.
Make significant contributions to some or all of the following:
- advancing the state-of-the-art in dam technology, either through sustained efforts or a single breakthrough major dam projects
- public understanding of, or support for, the role and contributions of dams to benefit society.
- developing regulations, policies, or standards for dams and dam safety.

Judging/Scoring

Applications will be scored by sitting members of the USSD Board of Directors based upon the following scale.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD	Max. Points
Demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion through their leadership.	10
Significant contribution to advancing the state-of-the-art of dam technology either through sustained efforts or a single breakthrough.	10
Play a key role as a designer, manager, or advocate in major dam projects.	10
Advancement of public understanding of, or support for, the role and contribution of dams to benefit society.	10
Significant leadership in developing regulations, policies or standards for dams and dam safety.	10
Total Points Available	50

Submit a nomination for 2027

2026 Recipient

Michael Rogers
Stantec

Past Recipients

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.

General Criteria

Nominations are invited from USSD Members. The team recognized for the project award may include design professionals, consultants, contractors and dam owners and may include individuals, companies, agencies or organizations. The award will be given for new (within 2 years) construction or remedial construction of a dam, levee or other water resource structure (dam removal will be considered remedial construction). Construction must have been substantially completed at the time of nomination submission.

Submission Overview

Submissions must include:

Name of Project
List the individuals or organizations on the team to be recognized for the award. All companies or organizations that contributed to the project should be identified. A plaque or similar token of recognition will be presented to a representative of the Owner, the Contractor, and the Consultant. A maximum of 4 awards will be presented by USSD.
Include brief physical description of the Project. Plan and section views are required and should be uploaded in the Supporting Documentation Section. Photos may also be uploaded if appropriate.
Include brief description of the problem or challenge (i.e., reason for the construction).
Include justification to support your nomination of this Project. Please address the criteria that apply.
Nominator name and contact information.

Judging/Scoring

Applications will be scored by a diverse selection panel based upon the following scale.

EXCELLENCE IN CONSTRUCTED PROJECT AWARD	Max. Points
Best use of resources for sustainable water resources management	20
Innovative design or construction techniques	20
Efficiency of design (cost, materials, or time)	20
Overcoming significant challenges - technical, physical, management	20
Benefits resulting from the project construction	20
Total Points Available	100

Submit a nomination for 2027

2026 Sponsor:

2026 Recipient

Chimney Hollow Reservoir

Koehler Anderson, Barnard Construction Company
Joe Donnelly, Northern Water
Donald Montgomery, Stantec
Dan Kugler, Black & Veatch

Past Recipients

2025: Bois d'Arc Dam Project
2024: Tuolumne Log Pond Dam Spillway Upgrade
2023: Isabella Dam Safety Modification Project
2022: Boone Dam Internal Remediation Project
2021: Pickwick Landing Dam South Embankment Seismic Upgrade Project
2019: New Calaveras Dam
2018: Chilhowee Dam North Embankment Remediation Project
2017: Buchanan Dam Emergency Gate Dewatering System
2016: Emergency and Carryover Storage Project
2015: Removal of Elwha and Glines Canyon Dams
2014: Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Redevelopment Project
2013: Deep Creek Watershed Dam 5D Project
2012: Big Tujunga Dam Seismic Rehabilitation and Spillway Modification Project
2011: Ridges Basin Dam
2010: Taum Sauk Upper Reservoir Dam Restoration Project
2009: Lake Lenexa Dam and Spillway
2008: Lake Brazos Labyrinth Weir
2007: Pine Brook Dam
2006: Saluda Dam Remediation Project
2005: Guanella Dam and Reservoir Project

Exceptional Emerging Professional of the Year Award

Recognizes an individual age 35 and younger OR 10 years or less of dams experience who, through both their career and community involvement, exemplifies the following four tenets: advocate, educate, collaborate and cultivate.

General Criteria

Only USSD members can submit a nomination for themselves or other candidates.
Nominations can be for non-USSD members.
Award candidates must have qualified as a EP (35 and younger OR 10 years less of dams experience) at some point in the year prior to the Conference year.
Acting EP Committee Chairs and Vice Chairs of the Emerging Professional Committee are not eligible for nomination. EP leaders of other USSD committees are eligible.

Submission Overview

Judging/Scoring

Applications will be scored by a diverse selection panel based upon the following scale.

EXCEPTIONAL EMERGING PROFESSIONAL OF THE YEAR AWARD	Max. Points
Advocate: Candidate has championed the benefits of dams and levees in society through public outreach, community service, political involvement, etc.	20
Educate: Candidate has demonstrated technical excellence and/or advanced the state of the industry through contributions to projects, technical papers, publications, workshops, academic research, etc.	20
Collaborate: Candidate has strengthened the community of practice through cooperation and communication efforts within projects, organizations, committees, academia, etc.	20
Cultivate: Candidate has nurtured industry growth through actively seeking opportunities for leadership, mentorship, education, community advancement, etc.	20
Supplemental Information: Resumes, letters of recommendation, references, published papers, etc.	20
Total Points Available	100

Submit a nomination for 2027

2026 Sponsor:

2026 Recipient

Heidi Pence
GEI Consultants

Past Recipients

President's Award

Bi-annual award selected by outgoing USSD President recogninzing a member who has provided exceptional service to USSD.

2026 Advocate Recipient

Jeremy Begley
Schnabel Engineering

2026 Collaborate Recipient

William Foos
GFT

2026 Operate Recipient

Ed Toms
Global Tailings Management Institute

Past Recipients

Outstanding Paper and Presentation Award

Recognizes the outstanding paper presented during each USSD Conference.

General Criteria

Only papers submitted, accepted, and presented at the USSD annual conference are eligible.
All abstracts submitted to USSD will be scored and reviewed by their respective technical committee in the initial abstract review round.
For the 2nd review round, a draft paper must be submitted to be eligible for consideration for Outstanding Paper and Presentation. Submissions with extended abstracts will NOT be eligible.
Prior to the conference, authors for the top 5 papers will be notified that they are finalists in the running for Outstanding Paper and Presentation.
The finalists’ presentations will be judged by a diverse selection of professionals in the industry.
Winners and finalists will be announced at the USSD Conference.

Judging/Scoring

2026 Recipient

Hannah Curran, Pacific Gas & Electric

Connecting the Plots - Lessons Learned from a Comprehensive Data Evaluation of the 40-year Instrumentation Record for a Hydraulic Fill Embankment Dam

Past Recipients

2025: Andy Kost, Conforth Consultants, Inc.
2024: Bryan Bledsoe, USACE
2023: Christie Hale, Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
2022: Derek S. Kinder, USACE
2019: Lelio Mejia, Geosyntec Consultants, and Ethan Dawson, AECOM
2018: Robert Rinehart and Blake Armstrong, US Bureau of Reclamation
2017: Jack Montgomery with Sam Abbaszadeh, MWH now Stantec
2016: Douglas D. Boyer and William Allerton, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
2015: Jay Stateler, Bureau of Reclamation
2014: Lelio Mejia, URS; Jiaer Wu, CHEC USA; and Michael Mooers, Santa Clara Valley Water District
2013: William R. Swanson, MWH Americas
2012: Michel Jubran, MWH
2011: E.F.R. Bollaert, AquaVision Engineering Ltd.
2010: Lewis E. Hunter and Ronn S. Rose, Corps of Engineers; Bruce R. Hilton and William McCormick, Kleinfelder, Inc.; and Todd Crampton, AMEC Geomatrix, Inc.
2009: Patrick J. Regan, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
2008: Gregg A. Scott and Barbara L. Mills-Bria, Bureau of Reclamation
2007: Alan F. Rauch, Jeffrey S. Dingrando and Thomas Pace, FMSM Engineers; and Robert Van Cleave II and Mark Harris, Corps of Engineers
2006: Guy S. Lund, URS Corporation
2005: Ross Boulanger and I. M. Idriss, University of California, Davis

Outstanding Emerging Professional Paper and Presentation Award

Recognizes the outstanding paper presented by a emerging professional during each USSD Conference.

General Criteria

Only abstracts submitted, accepted, and presented at the USSD annual conference are eligible.
Emerging Professional must be listed as an author and presenter/co-presenter.
All abstracts submitted to USSD will be scored and reviewed by their respective technical committee. Prior to the conference, the top 5 scoring papers will be notified that they are finalists in the running for Outstanding Paper and Presentation.
The finalists’ presentations will be judged by a diverse selection of professionals in the industry.
Winners and finalists will be announced at the USSD Conference.

Judging/Scoring

2026 Recipient

David Hernandez, HDR; Ben Garrett, HDR

Is Your Spillway Burping? Put a Big Straw in It!

Past Recipients

2025: Josh Corbett, USACE; Petros Giannaros, HDR; Dikshant Saini, HDR
2024: Christopher Krage, GEI Consultants, Inc.
2023: Christian Armstrong, WSP Golder
2022: Gergo Arany, Bureau of Reclamation
2019: Nicholas Paull, Ross W. Boulanger and Jason T. Dejong, University of California, Davis
2018: Ali Reza Firoozfar, HDR
2017: Vojislav Cvijanovic, California Department of Water Resources, with Mark Schultz and Blake Dolve, California Department of Water Resources
2016: Richard Keizer, GEI Consultants, Inc. for An Empirical Model for Estimating Internal Erosion Critical Gradients for Inclined Exit Face Conditions. The paper was co-authored by John D. Rice, Utah State University; and Robert A. Jaeger, GEI Consultants, Inc.
2015: Brian Hart, Bureau of Reclamation
2014: Jared Deible, RIZZO Associates
2013: Jack Montgomery, University of California, Davis
2012: Hillery Venturini, Bureau of Reclamation
2011: Everett L. Litton and Dennis Hogan, Black & Veatch Corporation
2010: R.J. Armstrong, California Department of Water Resources. The paper was co-authored by Ross Boulanger, University of California, Davis; and M.H. Beaty, Beaty Engineering.

Outstanding Poster Presentation

Recognizes the outstanding poster presentation during each USSD Conference.

2026 Recipient

Not Awarded

Past Recipients

2019: Anurag Singhal, Kevin Gerst and Kenwarjit S. Dosanjh, HDR
2018: Travis Ford, HDR
2017: Chris J. Redell, USACE and Ali Asghari Tabrizi, Schnabel
2016: John Werner, James Rutherford, and Joe Groeneveld, Hatch Associates Consultants, Inc.; Kim Pate and Daniel Kirschbaum, Seattle City Light; Keith Moen, HDR; and Justin Arnold, Alden Laboratories Inc.
2015: Meghann Wygonik, Corps of Engineers
2014: Michael McCaffrey, Parsons Brinkerhoff, Mark J. Gross, Alcoa Power Generating, Inc., Tony Plizga and Paul F. Shiers, both of Parsons Brinckerhoff
2013: Mason Ghafghazi, University of California, Davis
2012: John Ruhl, Black & Veatch Corporation
2011: B. Dasgupta, D. Basu, K. Das and R. Green, Southwest Research Institute
2010: E.F.R. Bollaert, AquaVision Engineering Ltd.
2009: Jay N. Stateler, Bureau of Reclamation; John Anevski and Doug Oellermann, Bureau of Indian Affairs; and Michael Brown, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

Public Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Around 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.

Submission Overview

Online submissions should:

Be no longer than 8-pages including text figures, and photographs.
Outline all companies or organizations that contributed to the project
Identify at least one of the seven recognition areas above for which the recognition is being made.
Provide an individual resume or organization/project profile.
Detail the attributes associated with the identified area that merits recognition (i.e., in what way is this special compared to the industry).
Provide illustrations, examples or sources that support the recognition. Examples include:
- PSSEM related education and training, and
- Improvements made or challenges faced, possibly as a result of a public safety and security incident, that contributed to the public safety and security program

Judging/Scoring

Weighted scores will be based on the following criteria.

PUBLIC SAFETY, SECURITY, AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AROUND DAMS RECOGNITION	Max. Points
Contributions or Attributes that support a dam or levee public safety, emergency management, and security program	10
Improvements Made and/or Challenges Faced that contributed to the public safety and security program in the fields of Physical, Personnel, Information, and/or Cyber security related to the Dam Industry.	10
Means and Methods taken to ensure conformance of a good public safety, emergency management, and/or security program for dams or levees	10
Education and Training that provided the basis of supporting a public safety, emergency management, and/or security program	10
Documentation and Structure of Nomination presented in support of the recognition nomination packet	10
Total Points Available	50

Submit a nomination for 2027

2026 Recipient

Worthington Products

Past Recipients

OUTSTANDING PAPER AND PRESENTATION AWARD	Max. Points
Technical Paper/Extended Abstract Submission	20
Technical Content	20
Topic Relevance to USSD Community	20
Presentation Skills	20
Presentation Materials Quality	10
Q & A	10
Total Points Available	100

OUTSTANDING EMERGING PROFESSIONAL PAPER AND PRESENTATION AWARD	Max. Points
Technical Paper/Extended Abstract Submission	20
Technical Content	20
Topic Relevance to USSD Community	20
Presentation Skills	20
Presentation Materials Quality	10
Q & A	10
Total Points Available	100

Awards

USSD Awards & Recognitions

Lifetime Achievement Award

2026 Recipient

Excellence in Constructed Project Award

2026 Recipient

Exceptional Emerging Professional of the Year Award

2026 Recipient

President's Award

2026 Advocate Recipient

2026 Collaborate Recipient

2026 Operate Recipient

Outstanding Paper and Presentation Award

2026 Recipient

Outstanding Emerging Professional Paper and Presentation Award

2026 Recipient

Outstanding Poster Presentation

2026 Recipient

Public Safety, Security, and Emergency Management Around Dams Recognition

2026 Recipient

Additional Resources