Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Reston, Va. — The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) has announced that Col. Stephen J. Ressler, Ph.D., P.E., Dist.M.ASCE, head of the civil and mechanical engineering department at West Point, is the recipient the 2011 Outstanding Projects and Leaders (OPAL) award for lifetime achievement in education.
During his thirty-year career with the U.S. Army, Ressler has served as an engineer officer, both overseas and domestically, and has taught at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point for 18 years. In 2007, Ressler was deployed to Afghanistan, where he developed the civil engineering program at the newly formed National Military Academy of Afghanistan.
Ressler is also the developer and director of the West Point Bridge Design Contest, a nationwide Internet-based competition that has introduced engineering to more than 50,000 middle and high school students since 2001. He is one of the developers of ASCE’s ExCEEd (Excellence in Civil Engineering Education) Teaching Workshop and has written extensively on engineering accreditation, curriculum assessment, faculty development, teaching techniques, K-12 engineering outreach and information technology.
Ressler is a distinguished member of ASCE, and in 2002 received the President’s Medal. He has doctoral and master’s degrees in civil engineering from Lehigh University and a bachelor’s degree from West Point. Ressler also has a master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Army War College. He is a registered professional engineer in Virginia and is a resident of West Point, N.Y.
Established in 1999, the OPAL awards recognize individuals for life-long contributions, accomplishments and achievements that have made significant differences in five areas of civil engineering: construction, design, education, government and management. The awards will presented at the annual OPAL gala on March 31, 2011. Recipients in the four other categories include:
- Construction—Kris R. Nielsen, Ph.D.
- Design—William F. Baker, Jr., P.E., F.ASCE
- Government— Joseph A. “Bud” Ahearn, P.E., Dist.M.ASCE
- Management—Gregs Thomopulos, P.E., F.ASCE
More information about the OPALs is available at: http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=2147488985. For press passes, please contact ljohnson@asce.org.
Founded in 1852, the American Society of Civil Engineers represents more than 144,000 civil engineers worldwide and is America’s oldest national engineering society. For more information, visit www.asce.org.
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