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Civil Professor Honored by ASCE for Lifetime Work
Rogers
Rogers

Associate Professor of Civil Engineering Jerry Rogers will receive two honors this year from the American Society of Civil Engineers for a lifetime of work in the civil engineering profession and for his ongoing passion to raise awareness for civil engineering history.

Next month, Rogers will be honored by the ASCE's Environmental & Water Resources Institute as one of three recipients of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be presented to Rogers during the World Environmental & Water Resources Congress 2011, held May 22-26 in Palm Springs, Calif.

"My career has spanned service on the Water Resources Planning and Management Division in the '70s and '80s and chairing Water Systems in '79 at UH and in Mexico City to board service and founder of the EWRI beginning in the '90s," said Rogers. "This award is very meaningful to me."

Rogers served on the task committee that founded the institute in the late '90s as well as chaired its History and Heritage Committee from 1999-2011. He has been a very active member of ASCE, earning such recognition as a Lifetime Service Award from the ASCE Texas Section (2009), and being named a National Distinguished Member (2009), a Lifetime Member (2006) and a National Fellow (1999). Rogers also received ASCE's National ExCEED Leadership Award (2000), the William H. Wisely American Civil Engineer Award (1997), the Award of Honor (1994), the ASCE Texas Section History and Heritage Award (1992), and the National Service to Profession Award (1990). Beyond ASCE, Rogers was named Houston Engineer of the Year by the National Society of Professional Engineers/Texas Society of Professional Engineers (1996).

He has served on the national board for the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, served as national vice president of ASCE in 2003 and on the executive committee from 2001-2003, and served as national president of the American Water Resources Association and president of ASCE's Texas Section in 1989.

Furthermore, for his outstanding service and "selfless efforts" to raise awareness about civil engineering history and for his participation at multiple U.K. engineering symposia, ASCE's History and Heritage Committee will be also honoring Rogers with its 2011 Civil Engineering History and Heritage Award.

Rogers has been a longtime advocate of civil engineering history and has worked to integrate a historical prospective in the classroom. Just last year, he participated in a special symposium to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Hoover Dam. Not only did he serve as one of three editors for the conference proceedings, his paper titled "The New Town of Boulder City: City Planning and Infrastructure Engineering for Hoover Dam Workers" was one of 20 papers selected nationally for inclusion in the proceedings.

For many years, Rogers has organized and chaired history symposia during ASCE's annual conference. This role includes coordinating and editing each symposium's proceedings into a published compilation. Over the years, he has produced about 10 separate ASCE publications along with many other annual session papers for the EWRI Congress.

"It was a lot of work but I felt there needed to be more published articles on civil engineering history for students, faculty and practitioners," said Rogers, who will receive the History and Heritage Award this October at the ASCE Annual Conference in Memphis, Tenn.

Rogers received a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in water resources and environmental engineering from the University of Arkansas in 1963 and 1964, respectively. He earned a Ph.D. in civil engineering and water resources from Northwestern University in 1970. He is an expert in stormwater management and drainage engineering, water resource systems and distribution, and urban growth planning.

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