2026 Academy Convocation and Celebration of Excellence
April 16, 2026

HONOR AWARD IN SMALL PROJECTS

AquaWorks DBO, LLC -
An Apex Company
for
Mighty Argo Cable Car Wastewater Reclamation Facility

GRAND PRIZE IN DESIGN

Black & Veatch
for
Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant Biosolids Facility Improvements

HONOR AWARD IN DESIGN

Fulton County and Archer Western/
Brown and Caldwell Joint Venture
for
The Big Creek WRF Expansion

SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT

HDR
for
San Pedro Creek Culture Park

GRAND PRIZE IN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

Kyle Bibby, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE
for
Mechanistic and Collaborative Wastewater-Based Epidemiology

GRAND PRIZE IN RESEARCH

Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
for
Last Piece to the Carbon Puzzle for Pure Water Southern California:  Partial Denitrification-Anammox Membrane Bioreactor Process

HONOR AWARD IN ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

Orange County Sanitation District
for
OC San Headquarters

HONOR AWARD IN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

Purdue University
for
AI-Driven Machine Learning Frameworks for Optimizing Biomimetic Algal Biofuel Production

HONOR AWARD IN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH

University of South Florida,
Penn State University, Technion Israel
for
Mainstream Deammonification by Ion Exchange and Bioregeneration via Partial Nitritation/Anammox

HONOR AWARD

Jurupa Community Services District
for
JCSD Community Academy: Building Trust Through Transparency 

GRAND PRIZE

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago
for
Green Infrastructure Community Guide: Stormwater Strategies for Resilient Neighborhoods

HONOR AWARD

Orange County Sanitation District
for
Wastewater 101 Citizens' Academy

Stanley E. Kappe Award
David A. Vaccari, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE

Edward J. Cleary Award
Robert C. Ferrante, P.E., BCEE

Gordon Maskew Fair Award
Robert Gardner, P.E., BCEE

Honorary Member
Domenico Grasso, Ph.D., P.E.

International Honorary Member
Rajasekhar Balasubramanian, Ph.D.

Ralph and Joe Bales Graber Science Award
Zhen (Jason) He, Ph.D., BCEEM

Excellence in Environmental Engineering and Science Education Award
Professor Hedy V. Alavi, Ph.D., MBA, P.E., BCEE

W. Wesley Eckenfelder Graduate Research Award
Jianan Feng

Paul F. Boulos Excellence in Computational Hydraulics/Hydrology Award
Jeil Oh

Christopher E Adkison
Hassan Alzain
Mohamed S. Gaballah Awad, Ph.D.
Parul Baranwal, Ph.D.
Axel J Berky, PhD, MEM
Nefeli Bompoti, Ph.D.
J'reyesha Brannon, P.E.
John Brockgreitens, Ph.D.
Ashley Butzlaff, Ph.D.
Xiujuan Chen, Ph.D., P.Eng.

Mackenzie Cremeans, Ph.D., P.G.
Matthew Gonzalez, P.E.
Kelly D Good, Ph.D., P.E.
Huiyuan Guo, Ph.D.
Lei Guo, Ph.D.
Kerri Hickenbottom, Ph.D.
Russ Hyatt, P.E.
Joshua Jack, Ph.D.
Julie A Korak, Ph.D., P.E.
Max Krause, Ph.D.
Eric Krikorian, P.E.

David G. Kwabi, Ph.D.
Yuchuan Lai, Ph.D., P.E.
Jason Chun-Ho Lam, Ph.D.
Roderick Lammers
Mi-Ling Li, Ph.D.
Yalin Li, Ph.D.
Kaisen Lin, Ph.D.
Alison Ling, Ph.D., P.E.
Sheldon Vaughn Masters, Ph.D.
Martha McAlister, Ph.D., P.E.

Garrett McKay, Ph.D.
Gayathri Ram Mohan, Ph.D., P.E.
Taylor Maddalene Myers, Ph.D.
Jaewook Myung, Ph.D.
Sameer Neve, Ph.D., EIT
Luiza Notini, Ph.D.
Christopher Olivares Martinez, Ph.D.
Shu-Yuan Pan, Ph.D., P.E.
Zacharias Pandelides, Ph.D.
Brian Pinkard, Ph.D.

Mohan Qin, Ph.D.
Eric Redmond, P.E.
David Rounce, Ph.D.
Whitney Sandelin, P.E.
Parita Shah, EIT, M.ASCE
Leslie Smith, Ph.D., P.E.
Anthony P. Straub, Ph.D.
Yewei Sun, Ph.D., P.E.
Dengjun Wang, Ph.D.
Haoran Wei, Ph.D.

Tao Wen, Ph.D.
Tao Ye, Ph.D.
Yinyin Ye, Ph.D.
Min Zheng, Ph.D.
Shiqiang (Nick) Zou, Ph.D.

Bucknell University

University of Miami