ASCE has honored Dario A. Gasparini, Ph.D., M.ASCE, with the 2022 Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award for a lifetime of professional services, teaching, scholarship, and outreach in civil engineering history and heritage.
Over his career, Gasparini has contributed to many regional, national, and international history and heritage activities. He served as a member of the national ASCE History and Heritage Committee. He incorporated engineering history into his engineering courses and continues to do so within adult education courses and in his outreach activities. With undergraduate students, Gasparini completed the first engineering studies and reports accessioned by the Library of Congress as part of the Historic American Engineering Record Collection. He also completed research for the National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation Program of the Federal Highway Administration. His reports are used as guides for rehabilitations and for new covered bridge designs.
Gasparini has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals, peer-reviewed conference proceedings, and books. Among his scholarly contributions, he has documented the work of engineers Stephen Harriman Long, George Washington Whistler, Alfred L. Rives, Claude A.P. Turner, and Charles C. Sunderland. His studies have led to the identification and designation of two National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. Because of his scholarly work, Gasparini is internationally recognized as a bridge historian.
The Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award is presented to those persons who, through writing, research, or other efforts, have made outstanding contributions to a better knowledge of, or appreciation for, the history and heritage of civil engineering.
