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VA ASCE Centennial Celebration with President Truax

ASCE National President Dr. Truax met with UVA’s ASCE Student Chapter and Civil Engineering Department faculty on March 25, 2022.  Richmond Branch President Matt Amonette and President-elect Jeff Huffman attended the meeting as local representation of the Virginia Section and Richmond Branch.  This campus visit was part of President Truax’s statewide student chapter road show that started on March 22 and included visits at Virginia Tech (Tuesday), Liberty University (Wednesday), Virginia Military Institute (Thursday), Sweet Briar College (Thursday), University of Virginia (Friday), and Old Dominion University (Friday).  A quick one-week tour of the great Commonwealth of Virginia.

President Truax enthusiastically presented on ASCE’s current and future activities supporting the Civil Engineering profession and discussed the transition/retention of civil engineering students to professional membership.  Faculty members presented on multiple programs within the Civil Engineering Department, and two student teams presented a summary of their senior capstone projects.  President Truax finished his visit with a lab tour and a meeting with the Dean of Engineering.

These photos show President Truax in action during his visit:

President Truax accepts an appreciation gift from UVA’s Student Chapter. Also pictured is UVA Faculty (left to right) Brian Park (seated), Jose Gomez III (standing), and Brian Smith (standing)

President Truax touring UVA’s virtual lab.
UVA’s Jose Gomez crosses a virtual crosswalk in UVA’s virtual lab.

On March 26, 2022, the Virginia Section of ASCE hosted the Centennial Gala at the Omni Richmond Hotel in Richmond, Virginia.  This was the main event in a series of ongoing events throughout 2022 celebrating the 100th birthday of ASCE in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  The event was planned and thrown by a Subcommittee established under the Virginia Section Board of Directors (BOD) along with the help of many volunteers and longtime ASCE supporters.

Over 150 attendees were treated to an amazing evening of food and drink, presentation of awards, dancing, and reuniting and socializing with our local ASCE community.  The evening was highlighted by the keynote speaker, 2022 ASCE President, Dr. Dennis D. Truax, PE, DEE, DWRE, FASCE, FNSPE; White Endowed Chair, Head & Prof., Civil & Environmental Engineering, Mississippi State University.  He gave an inspiring speech that touched on both the history of ASCE over the past 100 years as well as the outlook of ASCE over the next 100 years.

The Richmond Branch was honored to have much of its BOD and members in attendance.  On behalf of the Richmond ASCE community, we would like to extend a special appreciation to Kimely-Horn, who received an award at the Gala for being the “Best of Best” supporters of the Richmond Branch over the past 100 years.  Over the past 10 years along, Kimley-Horn has had over 20 employees serve on the Richmond Branch BOD including three past-presidents.  In addition to serving on the BOD, Kimely-Horn has provided speakers, panelist, and sponsorships for many local ASCE events.  It was an honor to have our very own Catherine Sydnor accept this award on behalf of Kimley-Horn.

Here are a few pictures from the amazing evening:

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