Engineering pioneers, leaders and innovators will gather at the Ontario Professional Engineers Awards gala on Saturday to celebrate outstanding contributions to their profession — from exceptional research advances to positive social impact.
The awards, conferred jointly by the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE) and Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO), are celebrating their 70th anniversary in 2017, and the evening’s program is designed around the theme of Past, Present & Future. Six of this year’s 11 awardees are members of the U of T Engineering community.
U of T Engineering Professors Paul Santerre (Dentistry, IBBME), Jan Andrysek (IBBME) and Craig Simmons (MIE, IBBME) have collectively swept the awards for entrepreneurship, and research and development.
Santerre is receiving an Engineering Medal in the Entrepreneurship category, for applying new technologies or innovative approaches that have enabled new companies to get started, and/or assisted established companies to grow in new directions. He has demonstrated the initiative, energy and spirit it takes to seek out new ideas and to take a leading role in fostering and promoting them.
Andrysek and Simmons are each receiving Engineering Medals in the Research and Development category, for using new knowledge in developing useful, novel applications, or advancing engineering knowledge or applied science, or discovering or extending any of the engineering or natural sciences.
U of T Engineering alumna Samantha Espley (Geo 8T8) will receive the Management Medal, for innovative management contributing significantly to the overall excellence of an engineering achievement. Alumni Margaret Kende (CivE 6T0) and Benny Pang (EngSci 7T2) were recognized with Citizenship Awards for outstanding public service. Alumnus Nicholas Stark (MechE 7T8) was awarded the Engineering Medal for Engineering Excellence, recognizing significant technical contributions and leadership in the design and construction of health-care facilities in Ontario and across Canada.
“These awards reflect the diversity of our engineering community leadership and contributions, from research and commercialization, to entrepreneurship and social impact,” said Dean Cristina Amon, who received the Gold Medal in 2015, recognizing public service, technical excellence and outstanding professional leadership. “My warmest congratulations to the recipients on these richly deserved honours.”
Learn more about each of the 2017 Ontario Professional Engineers Award recipients.
