Puget Sound Engineering Council

Professor W. Jong Yoon, Ph.D.
University of Washington, Bothell

Nominated by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Professor W. Jong Yoon, Ph. D., University of Washington, Bothell, has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 Academic Engineer-of-the-Year Award in recognition of his exceptional career as a mechanical engineering educator, his significant contributions to the design and development of smart medical devices, his active engagement as faculty advisor of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Student Chapter, and his dedicated efforts as a teacher and mentor of engineering students.

His research activities center on the design and development of mechatronics systems and their applications in biomedical devices. His research team designs, simulates, builds, and assesses different smart devices in a variety of domains. He led the development of surgical telerobot systems and a variety of surgical tools, including sensorized robot graspers. His research team currently is focused on developing robotics for rehabilitation of stroke patients, robot-assisted medical systems and smart user interfaces, and assistive technologies to reduce caregiver’s work-related musculoskeletal disorders. To serve his professional community, Professor Yoon has served as an associate editor of two prestigious journals and co-chaired regional engineering conferences.

As a founding member of the mechanical engineering program at the University of Washington, Bothell, Professor Yoon has committed to education excellence through innovative and creative curricula, interdisciplinary teaching and research, and a vibrant community. He has been particularly active in developing the dynamics, control systems, and mechatronics course series. He served as Chair of the Mechanical Engineering Program for five years providing critical leadership to the developing program.
Professor Yoon strongly believes that students who participate in extracurricular activities are more motivated and that the experiences are positively related to academic performance and leadership. For this reason, he assisted his students in founding an American Society of Mechanical Engineering Student Chapter and continues to serve as its advisor.

Professor Dawn E. Lehman, Ph. D.

University of Washington

Professor Dawn E. Lehman, Ph. D., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Academic Engineer-of-the-Year Award in recognition of her exceptional career as a structural engineering educator, her significant contributions to seismic engineering of structural systems, and her dedicated efforts as a teacher and mentor of engineering students.

She is nationally recognized for her research program using large-scale experimental results in conjunction with high-resolution finite element analysis to develop methods for evaluating and retrofitting existing systems and for investigating performance-based seismic engineering approaches for design. She has conducted research on a range of systems, including reinforced-concrete walls and frames, steel-braced frames, as well as concrete-filled tube, precast, and reinforced-concrete bridge systems. Her research results have been incorporated into codes, design manuals, and provisional structural engineering recommendations.

June 24, 2021, the Champlain Towers South building in Surfside, Florida collapsed without warning. Professor Lehman worked with an investigative journalist team to investigate the collapse using tools and technologies developed through her research. The primary objective of the investigation was to understand how initial damage in a pool deck could lead to partial collapse of the cast-in-place reinforced-concrete structure. This work led to the team receiving a Pulitzer Prize and to making numerous presentations to international audiences.

Teaching is a critical part of her success as an educator. Her teaching goals are (1) teach fundamental knowledge yet challenge students, (2) set a high bar and level of expectation, (3) encourage collaboration and active learning, and (4) integrate prior and current class materials to create a more holistic learning experience.

Professor Pedro Arduino, Ph. D.

University of Washington

Professor Pedro Arduino, Ph. D., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2023 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his exceptional career as a geotechnical engineering educator, his significant contributions to the development and application of advanced numerical modeling techniques for analysis of soil behavior and the behavior of soil-structure interfaces, and his dedicated efforts as a teacher and mentor of engineering students.

He is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in computational geomechanics. He has been instrumental in the development of constitutive models of soils subjected to earthquake shaking, the development of advanced finite element models for soil-structure interaction, and experiential study of granular soils under complex loading conditions. He has been active in the development of the OpenSees finite element package that has the unusual ability of modeling both soils and structural elements, thus allowing direct investigations of nonlinear soil-structure interaction. He has also been a pioneer in the development of Material Point Method models that can be used to analyze particulate flow slides and to estimate forces due to the impact and damming effects of debris carried by tsunamis.

He has been recognized as one of the best and most popular instructors in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is known for his clear and enthusiastic style of lecturing and for being an early adapter of technology in the classroom. He has revamped the graduate soil mechanics laboratory course by installing new testing and automated data acquisition equipment. He also strengthened the graduate curriculum by developing new courses in computational geomechanics and constitutive modeling.

He also has served as an academic leader. He served as Associated Dean of the College of Engineering and as Associate Chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Professor Katherine G. Kuder, Ph. D., P. E.

Seattle University

Professor Katherine G. Kuder, Ph. D., P. E., Seattle University has been selected as the recipient of the 2022 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of her exceptional career as a structural engineering educator; her significant contributions to the characterization and optimization of cement-based composites, and her dedicated efforts as a teacher and mentor of engineering students.

She is deeply committed to improving student learning and educational experiences and has led efforts to improve the level and scope of engineering education. She teaches a wide range of courses, spanning first year to graduate, mechanics-based to design, and lecture and laboratory courses. She is passionate about engaging students, both inside and outside of the classroom, to help them develop both technical and professional skills. She advises senior capstone projects and led the creation of Seattle University’s Master of Science in Structural Engineering program. She serves on the College of Science and Engineering diversity committee studying issues of equity and inclusion in engineering and implementing initiatives to increase diversity.

Her research is experimentally based, using mechanics and materials science principles to understand and model composite performance with an aim to improve sustainability. She focuses on the development of newly engineered cement-based composites that can be tailored for specific applications, with an emphasis on sustainability. She has been involved in efforts to develop cementitious composites to be used in reinforced concrete shear panels, concrete-filled tubes, and residential construction.

She also serves as an academic leader. She was Chair of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department for six years and currently is an Associate Dean of the College of Science and Engineering.

Professor Laura N. Lowes, Ph.D.

University of Washington

Professor Laura N. Lowes, Ph. D., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of her exceptional career as a structural engineering educator who integrated cutting edge research with engineering design and problem solving. Her teaching, student advising, publications, lectures, and participation in technical conferences have led to significant advances in the seismic design of structures. 

She employs a unique knowledge base and skill set that includes expertise in development and application of numerical models.  Specifically, she uses laboratory testing and numerical simulation to develop recommendations for advancing design codes and standards. She is best known for her research addressing the behavior, simulation, design, and performance assessment of the slender reinforced concrete walls that are used commonly to resist lateral loads in mid- and high-rise buildings.  She and her collaborators developed a numerical modeling approach that enables simulation of loss of lateral load carrying capacity that could result in building collapse during a seismic event. 

As a teacher, she provides students with the fundamental knowledge and technical skills needed to accomplish their research and enter professional practice upon graduation. Her classes include some traditional lectures as well as carefully crafted laboratory exercises and homework assignments that help students link fundamental theory to practice.  Her students are required to model a structure or a component of choice and demonstrate that their results are valid.  In addition to her traditional teaching activities, she has established multiple webinars to inform the natural hazard engineering community about the state of the art in earthquake engineering.

Professor Jeffrey W. Berman, Ph. D., University of Washington

2019 Award Recipient

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineers Association of Washington

Professor Jeffrey W. Berman, Ph. D.
University of Washington

Professor Jeffrey W. Berman, Ph. D., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2019 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his exceptional career as a structural engineering educator who integrated cutting edge research with engineering design and problem solving. His teaching, student advising, publications, lectures, and participation in technical conferences have led to significant advances in the state of earthquake engineering practice.

He serves as the Director of the Structural Research Laboratory and a structural engineering lead of the multi-year M9 Project, a large National Science Foundation-sponsored interdisciplinary research project investigating the impact of magnitude 9 Cascade Subduction Zone earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest.  His research has advanced the understanding of how ground motion duration and ground motion frequency content impact buildings.  This has resulted in recommended design guidelines to improve the seismic safety of local buildings.

He has conducted research on the development of post-tensioned rocking cross-laminated timber wall systems as a potential lateral force resisting system for timber buildings up to 15 stories.   His experimental and computational studies have shown the viability of rocking cross-laminated timber walls for resisting seismic loads and providing structural-damage free performance in large earthquakes.  He also conducted research on the evaluation and retrofit of steel concentrically- braced frames designed prior to 1988.  Such frames may have deficiencies that inhibit ductile system behavior.  Through large-scale experiments and computational simulation, he and his colleagues have developed recommendations for evaluation and retrofit of such frames that are being incorporated into the national standard for seismic evaluation and retrofit of buildings.

Professor Marc O. Eberhard, Ph.D., University of Washington

2018 Award Recipient

Nominated by the Structural Engineers Association of Washington

Professor Marc O. Eberhard, Ph.D.
University of Washington

Professor Marc O. Eberhard, Ph.D., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2018 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his exceptional career as a structural engineering educator who integrated cutting edge research with engineering design and problem solving. His teaching, student advising, publications, lectures, and participation in technical conferences have led to significant advances in the state of earthquake engineering practice.

As the current leader of the structural engineering program, he is responsible for overseeing undergraduate and graduate educational programs.  He has collaboratively led the efforts to create new courses, to revise the content of existing ones, and to review graduation requirements to ensure that they meet the needs of students and professional practice.  He has been a great mentor to graduate students and has involved them in many of his research projects.  Many of these students are now working locally for public agencies and private engineering firms, and many of his Ph. D. students are now teaching at other universities.

As a researcher, he is most widely known for his work on the performance of reinforced concrete columns during earthquakes and for the development of new bridge bent systems that make it possible to construct bridges quickly in seismically active regions.  He developed a web-accessible database with the results of tests of more than 600 reinforced concrete columns.  Using this database, he and his students developed engineering tools to evaluate the deformation capacities of reinforced concrete columns at various levels of damage.  More recently, he has been working on the effects of tsunamis on bridges and on the effects of large-magnitude earthquakes and sedimentary basins on buildings and bridges in the Pacific Northwest.  He and another faculty member have developed a new seismic design methodology to account for both the spectral acceleration of expected ground motion and the duration.

Dr. H. David Stensel, P.E., University of Washington

Dr. H. David Stensel, P.E.
University of Washington

2017 Award Recipient

Nominated by the American Society of Civil Engineers

Dr. H. David Stensel, P.E., University of Washington, has been selected as the recipient of the 2017 Academic Engineer of the Year Award in recognition of his exceptional career as an environmental engineering educator who integrated cutting edge research with engineering design and problem solving. An emeritus professor, he retired from the University of Washington in 2016 after teaching for 36 years at the University of Utah and University of Washington.

His work as an educator has been focused on encouraging his students to learn basic fundamentals and analytical methods and to connect that knowledge with design applications and problem solving.  A key component of his classes has been to address local real-world project needs with students sharing their evaluations and design developments with engineers in the utility or firm involved in the local problem.  He has been a great mentor to graduate students and has involved them in many of his research projects.

His research contributions have focused on microorganism selection and novel biological treatment processes.  He has been a leader in the application of novel full-scale treatment processes for biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal.  He was the technical leader for the for the first full-scale wastewater treatment facility in North America that removed phosphorus by biological means instead of chemical addition.  The biological option is not only less costly, but it enables phosphorus recovery and reuse.  He led the design of the first oxidation ditch systems for biological nitrogen removal that are now used at over 1,200 wastewater treatment plants in the United States.

Prior to joining the University of Washington, he taught environmental engineering at the University of Utah and served as Director of Environmental Engineering Technology for Envirotech Corporation in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Dr. Elaine Scott, University of Washington Bothell