PhD candidate Justin Vander Werff won the 2012 Iowa Section American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Award for Outstanding Civil Engineer. The ASCE award honors a practicing engineer in industry or academia in recognition of promotion and advancement of the field of civil engineering in the state of Iowa.
Vander Werff says he is “a bit of a non-traditional graduate student.” The structural engineering graduate student also teaches civil engineering at Dordt College (Sioux Center, Iowa). He joined Dordt College in summer 2008 as its first-ever full-time civil engineering faculty member. The second qualifier for the ASCE award, “emphasizing work that develops skills and motivation in young engineers …,” refers to Vander Werff establishing an ASCE student chapter there. Much like at Iowa State, he formed a concrete canoe team at Dordt. In spring 2012, Dordt placed third in the Midwest Regional Concrete Canoe Competition – a testament to his leadership in only the second year of Dordt’s concrete canoe team.
“The energy and excitement of the students have been the main drivers in the success of the student chapter,” Vander Werff said of his ASCE student chapter. “It has been a pleasure to work with them and help them mature as young engineers.”
In addition to his doctoral studies, Vander Werff earned a Master of Science in civil engineering from Iowa State in 2002. He has a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree from Dordt with a mechanical emphasis, which he earned in 2000.
Vander Werff also received the Iowa State CCEE Graduate Student Travel Scholarship for his research presentation at the 2012 Portland Concrete Institute Convention and National Bridge Conference in Nashville, Tenn., held Sept. 29-Oct. 2. His poster was about seismic load distribution between girders in integral bridges. Wilson Engineering Professor Sri Sritharan advises him on this project.