ASCE has honored David Zhiwei Zhu, Ph.D., P.Eng, M.ASCE, with the 2022 Hydraulic Structures Medal for contributions in design, operation, and retrofitting of fish passages and hydropower dams for mitigating ecological impact, and urban sewer systems for preventing storm geysers, sedimentation, and sewer odor/corrosion controls.
Zhu is a professor of hydraulic engineering at the University of Alberta, in Canada. He has published over 200 papers and supervised over 80 graduate students. His research has two major contributions: one is hydraulic structures for urban water management, including sewer retrofitting methods for reducing sewer air pressure by recirculation, and the other is hydropower dams and the design of fishways. He and his team received ASCE’s 2017 Samuel Arnold Greeley Award for their research in sewer odor and air flow movement in urban sewer drop structures. Zhu was elected as the Industrial Research Chair in Urban Drainage of Canadian National Sciences and Engineering Research Council. He also received the Canadian Academy of Engineering, Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Camille A Dagenais Award for outstanding contributions by a civil engineer to the development and practice of hydrotechnical engineering in Canada.
Zhu has studied the risk of fish entrainment due to intake-induced flow for reducing fish mortality from dam operations. He also experimented and modeled various fish pathways using natural rocks and boulders. Zhu is a fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering.
The Hydraulic Structures Medal is awarded to an individual or individuals for significant contributions to the advancement of the art and science of hydraulic engineering as applied to hydraulic structures.
