COPRI is pleased to announce its 2025 award winners, recognized at the Ports '25 conference on June 3, 2025.
Please join us in congratulating this year's awardees for the Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award, the Kenneth M. Childs, Jr. Practitioners Award, and the John G. Moffatt–Frank E. Nichol Harbor and Coastal Engineering Award.
Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award
The Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award recognizes an individual for outstanding contributions to sustainable engineering practices in managing shorelines and coastal infrastructure through research, design, construction or management of the natural and built environment in the coastal zone.
Tori Tomiczek, Ph.D., EIT, M.ASCE, Associate Professor, Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA)
Tori Tomiczek is an Associate Professor in the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department at the U.S. Naval Academy (USNA). She earned her B.S. at the University of Florida and PhD at the University of Notre Dame. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Oregon State University before joining the Ocean Engineering faculty at USNA in 2017. Dr. Tomiczek’s research focuses on coastal engineering and coastal resilience. She has participated in field reconnaissance surveys evaluating damage and recovery following hurricane and extreme storm events. Dr. Tomiczek has also enjoyed working on physical model experiments at USNA, OSU, and Kyoto University. She is interested in better understanding wave-induced forces on coastal structures to inform design guidance and finding sustainable, resilient solutions that mitigate damage due to coastal hazards. Dr. Tomiczek is an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. She served as President of the Coastal, Oceans, Ports, and Riverine Institute (COPRI) from 2021-2022. She has contributed to the Flood Loads Subcommittee for ASCE7-22 and ASCE7-28, and she was honored to recently be selected as the Orville T. Magoon Sustainable Coasts Award Recipient.
Kenneth M. Childs, Jr. Practitioner's Award
The Kenneth M. Childs, Jr. Practitioner's Award recognizes design and construction practicing engineers employed in the marine engineering profession with demonstrated leadership and/or achievement in harbor and coastal projects.
Christopher Lawrence, P.E., M.ASCE, Chief Engineer and Global Principal for Marine Terminal, Jacobs
Chris is Jacobs’ Chief Engineer and Global Principal for Marine Terminal development with over 37 years of civil infrastructure design and construction experience. Chris received both his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering (’85) and Master of Science in Civil Engineering (’87) from Drexel University. He started his career as a geotechnical engineer at Jacob’s (then CH2M HILL’s) Milwaukee office, transferring home to Philadelphia in 1994. As a geotechnical engineer, he supported a wide variety of environmental, water, and transportation projects.
Since 1999, Chris’s focus has been on the development, modernization and delivery of major marine terminals in the U.S. and globally. Chris has led the development and significant redevelopment at most of the major marine terminals throughout the mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S. His project responsibilities span the life cycle of development- from initial planning, alternatives development and feasibility evaluation, through design and construction. Beyond waterfront development and marine structures, the projects have included upland development, including land reclamation and ground improvement, grading, utilities, and paving. He was also responsible for designing infrastructure needed to support cargo handling equipment such as rail-mounted or rubber-tired gantry cranes, gates, and other support buildings. Chris has specific experience in planning and designing port expansions at active container terminals while minimizing impacts on existing operations.
Jeff Massengill, P.E., BC.PE, M.ASCE, Senior Vice President and Global Director of the Maritime Market Sector, HDR (Ret.)
Mr. Massengill recently retired as a Senior Vice President and HDR’s Global Director of the Maritime Market Sector with 40 years of marine structural design, coastal engineering and construction management experience. Jeff graduated in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering with a Structures Emphasis from the University of Missouri at Rolla. Jeff started his career with Gulf Marine Fabricators, a J/V between Kiewit and Kaiser Steel. His first project included the foundation and fabrication/lifting plan design, and loadout analysis for Shell Oil Company’s Bullwinkle Platform. This 50,000-ton structure was the largest fixed based steel jacket built at that time for 1450’ of water depth, located in Green Canyon Block 65 in the Gulf of Mexico (America). Jeff transitioned to private practice and began his career with Shiner Moseley and Associates (SMA) in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1990 as a Project Engineer, focusing on waterfront structures design. During his time at SMA Jeff served in a variety of roles and became Executive Vice President and key shareholder in 1996. SMA was acquired by HDR in 2006, where Jeff became the Global Director of the Maritime Market Sector and served as part of the Transportation Business Group Management Team.
During his 40 years in the port and marine industry, Jeff is experienced in planning, program management, design and construction management of port, waterfront, coastal and marine projects. With a large portion of his subject matter expertise focusing on marine structures, he has design and construction experience encompassing marine and waterfront structures including ship and barge terminals including container, bulk liquids, liquefied natural gas, dry bulk, break bulk and heavy lift facilities, ship berthing and mooring evaluations, seawalls, bulkheads, wharves, quays, jetties and piers. In addition, Jeff is experienced in dredging, navigation studies, shoreline protection, habitat creation, breakwaters, marinas and offshore fabrication facilities, and offshore oil drilling and production platforms.
The John G. Moffatt–Frank E. Nichol Harbor and Coastal Engineering Award
The John G. Moffatt–Frank E. Nichol Harbor and Coastal Engineering Award recognizes an individual who has made a definite contribution in the fields of harbor and coastal engineering.
Jeffrey Melby, Ph.D., P.E., BC.CE (Ret.), M.ASCE, Senior Research Engineer, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory (Ret.)
Dr. Melby is a retired Senior Research Engineer for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory. He is presently an emeritus senior staff member at ERDC and an Adjunct Asst. Prof. at Tulane Univ. He has over 150 publications and led US Army Corps of Engineers research in coastal risk analysis, Coastal Hazards System, coastal structure engineering and artificial intelligence modeling of coastal storm responses. Dr. Melby was the ERDC senior engineer on many large studies including the FEMA Region V (Great Lakes) portion of the National Flood Insurance Program, North Atlantic Comprehensive Coastal Study, Coastal Texas Study Galveston Island to Bolivar Peninsula Morphology Study, Sabine to Galveston Flood Risk Management Study, Chesapeake Midbay Feasibility and PED studies, and Coastal Hazards System. In addition, his experience includes many ERDC research and site-specific studies focused on risk assessments and coastal structure engineering. Dr. Melby is active in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) including serving on ASCE/COPRI Coastal Engineer Certification Committee, and formerly on ASCE7 Flood Loads Committee, ASCE Coastal Engineering Research Council and ASCE Coastal Structures Committee. He routinely teaches short courses on coastal flood risk and coastal structure engineering. Dr. Melby has received over 30 Army and professional awards including the Bronze De Fluery Medal, 2017 USACE engineer of the year, 2016 ERDC Researcher of the Year, 2003 ERDC Vogel Engineer of the Year, US Army Research and Development Achievement Award, and the ERDC Most Impressive R&D Achievement award 7 times. He has been awarded over 40 patents.
