Outstanding Engineer Award
In 2017, the Columbus PES Chapter instituted an Outstanding Engineer Award (OEA), in accordance with the IEEE PES policies (https://www.ieee-pes.org/ieee-pes-outstanding-engineer-award). Three awards are given out yearly following an exhaustive and competitive nomination process followed by the decision of a panel of judges of outstanding merit. ‘Outstanding Young Engineer Award’ : for those with less than 15 years experience in the field of power and energy (years counted either through college or employment); ‘Outstanding Engineer Award’ : for those with 15 or more years of experience; and a Volunteer Award for someone who has contributed significantly to the local Chapter. Request for nominations are sent out to IEEE PES members in early August, and winners are generally selected by the end of September or October.
Awardees are selected based on the following criteria:
- Outstanding technical contributions to the power engineering profession.
- Outstanding professional and leadership contributions to the power engineering profession
- Significant contributions to the local community representing the power engineering profession.
- Outstanding contributions in the area of power engineering education.
Note: The recipient must be both an IEEE and PES member
2021 Winners:
Outstanding Young Engineer Award: Rajarshi Roychowdhury, Sr. Engineer Transmission Planning at AES Ohio
Outstanding Engineer Award: Antonio J. Conejo, Professor at The Ohio State University
Outstanding Volunteer Award: Austin Gaunce, Engineer at American Electric Power
2020 Winners:
Outstanding Young Engineer Award: Prakash Shrestha, P.E., Principal Engineer of American Electric Power Transmission
Outstanding Engineer Award: Bob Bradish, Senior Vice President of American Electric Power
Outstanding Volunteer Award: Daniel Chionuma, Project Development Supervisor, Burns & McDonnell
2019 Winners:
Outstanding Young Engineer Award: Jerod Marker, P.E., Principal Engineer of American Electric Power Transmission
Outstanding Engineer Award: Ramteen Sioshansi, Ph.D., Professor & Associate Chair of Department of Integrated System Engineering, The Ohio State University
Outstanding Volunteer Award: Xuan Wu, Ph.D., P.E., Principal Engineer of American Electric Power Transmission
2018 Winners:
Outstanding Engineer Award: John Lauletta, Founder & CEO of Exacter Inc.
An Outstanding Young Engineer Award was not given this year, due to no applicants. Please apply next year!
2017 Winners:
Outstanding Young Engineer Award: Xuan Wu, Ph.D., P.E., Senior Engineer of American Electric Power Transmission
Outstanding Engineer Award: Amrit Khalsa, P.E., Manager of American Electric Power Dolan Technology Center
Outstanding Volunteer Award: Richard Smelker, P.E., Staff Engineer of American Electric Power Transmission
Chapter Awards
- Columbus Chapter was recognized as one of the 2020 PES High-Performance Chapter program in Region 2. We acknowledge and appreciate all the chapter members, past event speakers & attendees, and our officers & volunteers. https://www.ieee-pes.org/images/files/pdf/chapters/2020_IEEE_PES_HPCP_Results_Final.pdf
- Columbus finished as a Runner Up for the 2017 and 2018 IEEE PES Outstanding Chapter Award (https://www.ieee-pes.org/pes-communities/awards/chapter-awards ), in the Large Chapter category.
