December 2014

Great outreach event or other activity? Let the whole Region know! If you’re a local ASCE leader and your Section, Branch, Younger Member Group, or Student Chapter has staged any special events, engaged in outreach from grade-school kids to lawmakers, done charity work, fund raising or anything of the sort, let ASCEnews Weekly know and we may include it in next month’s Region report. You may already have written about it and posted pictures in your newsletter, website, or social media. Share the details and any photos at asce.org/localnews. Got questions? Write to submissions@asce.org. See the other Region reports for December If you live adjacent to a Section in a different Region, or are merely interested in the other Region reports for December, click on each to view them:   Region 1   Boston Society of Civil Engineers Section, Buffalo Section, Connecticut Society of Civil Engineers Section, Ithaca Section, Maine Section, Metropolitan Section, Mohawk-Hudson Section, New Hampshire Section, New Jersey Section, Puerto Rico Section, Rhode Island Section, Rochester Section, Syracuse Section, Vermont Section Region 2   Central Pennsylvania Section, Delaware Section, Lehigh Valley Section, Maryland Section, National Capital Section, Philadelphia Section, Pittsburgh Section Region 3   Akron-Canton Section, Central Illinois Section, Central Ohio Section, Cincinnati Section, Cleveland Section, Dayton Section, Duluth Section, Illinois Section, Michigan Section, Minnesota Section, North Dakota Section, Quad Cities Section, Toledo Section, Wisconsin Section Region 4   Arkansas Section, Indiana Section, Kentucky Section, North Carolina Section, South Carolina Section, Tennessee Section, Virginia Section, West Virginia Section Region 5   Alabama Section, Florida Section, Georgia Section, Louisiana Section, Mississippi Section   Region 6   New Mexico Section, Oklahoma Section, Texas Section Region 7   Colorado Section, Iowa Section, Kansas City Section, Kansas Section, Nebraska Section, South Dakota Section, St. Louis Section, Wyoming Section Region 8   Alaska Section, Arizona Section, Columbia Section, Hawaii Section, Inland Empire Section, Montana Section, Nevada Section, Oregon Section, Seattle Section, Southern Idaho Section, Tacoma-Olympia Section, Utah Section Region 9   Los Angeles Section, Sacramento Section, San Diego Section, San Francisco Section Region 10   All International Sections, Branches, and Groups Missed last month's Region 2 update? See the November edition of  News Around Region 2 Share this page via social media and email:

NATIONAL CAPITAL SECTION Engineer-aide to U.S. senator named a 2015 New Face of Civil Engineering As project manager during a pre-assessment trip in 2013 for an Engineers Without Borders project in Simwatachela, Zambia, Jennifer Sloan Ziegler, Ph.D., EI, S.M.ASCE, and a small team of engineers installed drinking water wells to nearly 10,000 villagers. Having potable water not only meant the villagers have a constant source of water to grow their crops thus reducing deaths caused by starvation and malnutrition but it also meant the Zambian government would have to provide teachers in this extremely rural area to provide the children with basic education—something they have been denied until this point. Such early achievements made Ziegler worthy of selection as one of ASCE’s 2015 New Faces of Civil Engineering. “That is why I do what I do, because I believe I can effect a change in the world” stressed Ziegler, who as a student at Mississippi State University in 2010-2011 helped create the school’s first EWB chapter. Now serving a marine policy fellowship in the office of U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell [D-WA], Ziegler works to help reinforce Sen. Cantwell’s position on natural resources, ocean, and marine issues, as well as issues relating to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Since beginning her fellowship in January 2013, Zeigler has learned how Capitol Hill works and believes it will help her career goal of translating science and engineering into policy. “My hope,” says Ziegler, “is that being a New Face of Civil Engineering will increase awareness about the importance of bridging the gap between engineering and policy and exemplifies to others [about] the importance of technical advisers in policy, and alternative career options for someone with an engineering background.”  Section website>>

MARYLAND SECTION Project manager at U.S. nuclear and atomic agencies dies Guy Spencer Vissing, P.E., F.ASCE, 90, senior project manager at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for more than 30 years, died September 12. Recognizing his experience and knowledge of nuclear energy, Vissing was hired by Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) / NASA Space Propulsion Project Office at Lewis Research Center (today the Glenn Space Flight Center) in Cleveland, Ohio, where from 1962 to 1972 he held the positions of project engineer, project manager, technology utilization manager, and reliability manager on the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) and Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generation development programs. Discover more about Vissing’s distinguished career in ASCE News.

NATIONAL CAPITAL SECTION Division chief and technical director of the CERC remembered Thorndike Saville, Jr., P.E., F.ASCE, considered to be one of the giants in coastal engineering for his research on wave hindcasting and the development of wave statistics leading to wave forecasting and wave inshore processes, including overtopping and run-up and beach sediment transport, died November 5 at the age of 89. His work in hydrodynamics also led to studies to determine and predict storm surges. Among his achievements, he conducted larger-scale stability of rock experiments, testing and verifying Hudson’s formula [an equation used by coastal engineers to calculate the minimum size of riprap] in the large wave tank available at the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC). Discover more about Saville’s distinguished career in ASCE News.

PHILADELPHIA SECTION New park restores the civic heart of Philadelphia Adjacent to City Hall, Dilworth Park's fountains and public art required that a complex network of piping be fitted into a narrow space between the surface of the park and three levels of transit infrastructure. Discover how they pulled it off in ASCE’s online edition of Civil Engineering magazine.