March 2010
The Association of Consulting Engineers (ACE) and New Civil Engineer (NCE) have announced the shortlist for this year’s two awards the ACE/NCE Young Engineer of the Year Award, and the Outstanding Achievement of the Year Award.
Halcrow employees account for two of the four people shortlisted in both categories.
The Young Consultant of the Year Award recognises young excellence and talent in the field of consultancy and engineering. Anyone under 35 providing consultancy services in the built and natural environment was eligible to enter. Halcrow’s Nariba Gittens and Melanie Buckley account for half of the shortlisted young stars.
Nariba is a water engineer based in Halcrow’s Cardiff office. She is involved in a wide range of activities promoting engineering and has recently managed Halcrow’s sponsorship of the new Halcrow Studio at Cardiff University.
Melanie is a building services engineer for Halcrow Yolles. She studied physics before entering engineering to help pioneer low carbon building techniques. She has dealt with a wide portfolio of work, and undertook work to help a secondary school become one of the first to achieve a BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’.
The NCE/ACE Outstanding Achievement Award 2010 is open to outstanding project teams or individuals who have been involved in work that has gone above and beyond the norm in 2009.
For both awards, the judging panel is looking for evidence of significant achievement. It could be groundbreaking work that is changing people’s lives for the better, outstanding work to raise the profile of consultancy and engineering in the community or the wider world, or an amazing project success with a real ‘wow’ factor.
Dr Paul Starr and Yogita Maini make up two of the four people/projects shortlisted for this award.
Dr Paul Starr project managed the 40 month development of the Dames Point Container Terminal on the U.S. east coast. Halcrow was brought in as lead consultant to help deliver Jacksonville Port Authority (JAXPORT)'s flagship facility - one of the largest container ports on the US east coast. The team gained the necessary permits and designed and managed construction in an intense 42-month programme, finishing on time and within budget.
Before coming to the UK, Yogita Maini works tirelessly to promote the visibility of women engineers around the world. After starting her career with the Botswana Roads Department, she came to work on technically advanced projects as part of Halcrow’s transportation and highways team.
The winners will be announced at the NCE/ACE Consultants of the Year lunch at Claridge’s, London, on Friday 26 March 2010.