Nomination Deadline: March 1st

To recognize those members of the engineering profession who have rendered meritorious service in elective or appointive positions in government. William D. Shannon, Past Vice President, ASCE, contributed funds, the annual income of which is to be used for a Civil Government Award. The award was officially instituted by action of the Board of Direction in October 1963.

On January 8, 2015, the award was renamed Outstanding Public Official Award by action of the Board of Direction.

Recent winner

  • 2024: Tom S. Ramsey, P.E., M.ASCE

View all winners

Rules

  1. The name of the award is the Outstanding Public Official Award.
  2. The award shall be made to those members of ASCE, wherever resident, who have contributed substantially to the status of the engineering profession by meritorious public service in elective or appointive positions in civil government. The nominee shall hold the elective or appointive position and shall be an ASCE member in good standing at the time the nomination is submitted.
  3. In the selection of the recipients, primary consideration shall be given to public service which does not require the qualifications of an engineer. The award is intended to recognize service by engineers in such capacities as: mayor, city manager, city councilman, municipal department head, county or special authority official, state governor, member of legislature, state department head, member of congress, cabinet member, federal department administrator or National President.
  4. The award will not be made to persons holding positions that require the services of a professional engineer or positions that traditionally have been held by engineers, nor will the award be made to persons holding positions filled by competitive civil service examinations.
  5. The nominees for this award must be licensed professional engineers.
  6. The Award Selection Committee shall be the Committee on Developing Leaders. Its commendation, accompanied by an appropriate citation, shall be reported to the Committee on Professional Advancement (CPA) annually and shall be forwarded to the Executive Committee of the ASCE Board of Direction for final action.
  7. Any ASCE member, including the Award Selection Committee, may submit nominations in writing, for this award.
  8. Meritorious nominees not selected in a given year may be held over for consideration by the Committee on Developing Leaders for the next year. The names of these nominations will be conveyed to the Honors and Awards Program office.
  9. Only 1 person shall receive the award in any year and a recipient may receive the honor only once.
  10. The recipient shall be presented with an appropriate wall plaque and a certificate.
  11. Members of CPA and the Committee on Developing Leaders and Society members who have been awarded the grade Distinguished Member prior to the nomination deadline shall not be eligible for this award.

Nominations

To nominate, submit the following:

You can submit your nomination electronically to [email protected], or by mail to:

ASCE Honors and Awards
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191