ALBANY, NY, June 28, 2005 -- Joseph J. Rixner, P.E., has been named Engineer of the Year and Paul K. Boyce, P.E., New Principal of the Year for 2005 by the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York. Both men were honored June 6 at ACEC New York's spring conference at The Westin New York at Times Square.
The engineering awards are given annually in recognition of the outstanding contributions made by the recipients to the consulting engineering profession and to their communities.
Joseph J. Rixner, P.E., Engineer of the Year Award
Before his retirement in April, Rixner was a principal and executive vice president of Haley & Aldrich of New York, an environmental and geotechnical consulting engineering firm with 430 employees and 16 offices nationwide. His 37 years of engineering practice have included the design and construction of major geotechnical engineering, geologic and hydrogeologic projects including building foundations, rock tunnels and access shafts, water and wastewater treatment plants, pollution control facilities, highway embankments, bridges, earth dams, hydrogeologic studies, waste disposal facilities, urban mass transit projects, and large site developments for shopping malls, military bases and correctional facilities. Located in the firm's Rochester office, Rixner counts among his representative projects in the region the CSOAP project, a 21-mile tunnel network with 42 vertical drop shafts and several river crossings, a feasibility study for a 1000-ft.-long water intake tunnel into Lake Erie at Dunkirk, N.Y., and a 150-acre municipal solid waste disposal facility for Monroe County.
In addition to being an active member of ACEC New York, Rixner is the former president of the Consulting Engineers Council of New York State, and over his professional career has participated in the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Rochester Engineering Society and the International Society of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. He was named Civil Engineer of the Year in 1990 by the Rochester section of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has published or presented nine scholarly papers during his career.
Rixner's civic and humanitarian activities include the Rochester Rotary sponsored annual LPGA golf event, the proceeds of which go to supporting Rochester Rotary's Sunshine Campus and Camp Haccamo for physically disabled children. In retirement, he plans an active management role in the ACEC New York Rochester Region's Habitat for Humanity project.
Paul K. Boyce, P.E., New Principal of the Year Award
Paul K. Boyce, P.E., is a principal and vice president of P.W. Grosser Consulting, an environmental and civil engineering firm based in Bohemia, N.Y. He is admired by colleagues and clients alike for his team-oriented management style, attention to detail, integrity and for project strategies that look beyond the obvious to determine whether new techniques will achieve the client's long-term goals. His responsibilities include meeting environmental engineering and compliance requirements for clients in the municipal market sector, which includes government, commercial, institutional and utilities, as well as for private clients. His professional specialties are civil site design, water resources and supply design, remedial system design, project management, groundwater hydrology, healthcare engineering and environmental compliance.
In addition to active membership in ACEC New York's Long Island Region, Boyce is on the board of directors of the New York State Society of Professional Engineers, Suffolk County Chapter, and on the legislative committee of the Long Island Chapter of the American Water Works Association. He is also an active member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the American Public Works Association, the American Society of Healthcare Engineering and the Long Island Professional Geologists Association.
Always aware of how engineering effects quality of life issues, Boyce spends countless hours addressing concerns in local communities, with peers and with engineering students. He has presented papers at SUNY Stony Brook on a variety of environmental engineering topics.
Founded in 1921, American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (www.acecny.org) is the oldest organization of professional consulting engineering firms in the U.S. A statewide association, its members represent all major engineering disciplines and range from highly specialized solo practitioners to multidiscipline firms employing thousands with branch offices worldwide.
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