Professor Singh and Professor Yeh Receive AAWRE's Highest Honor
Professor Vijay P. Singh, |
Professor William W.G. Yeh, |
Professor Vijay P. Singh, Ph.D., D.Sc., P.E., P.H., Hon.D.WRE, of Texas A&M University at College Station, Texas, and Professor William W.G. Yeh, Ph.D., Hon.D.WRE, of University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) were recently elected Honorary Diplomates of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers in September 2008. The Honorary Diplomate status is AAWRE's highest honor given to an individual. Since the founding of AAWRE in October 2004, only sixteen individuals have received the Honorary Diplomate, Water Resources Engineers (Hon.D.WRE) status from the Academy.
Honorary Diplomate status is only granted to outstanding individuals who meet one or more of the following criteria: has attained a position of eminence in the water resources engineering profession, has made a singular noteworthy achievement or sustained noteworthy contributions to the advancement of the water resources engineering profession, or has rendered outstanding service over a sustained period of time in the field of water resources and to the work of the Academy.
Professor Singh and Professor Yeh will be awarded with an honorary medallion, a certificate, and pin, on May 19, 2009, during AAWRE's 5th Anniversary Diplomate Ceremony at the 2009 EWRI World Environmental & Water Resources Congress in Kansas City.
Professor Vijay P. Singh, Ph.D., D.Sc., P.E., P.H., Hon.D.WRE, is the inaugural Caroline and William N. Lehrer Distinguished Chair in Water Engineering and Professor of Civil, Environmental, Biological, and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University. Professor Singh has been recognized for the four decades of leadership in research, teaching and service to the hydrologic and water resources engineering profession. Singh's contribution to the state of the art has been significant in many different specialty areas including, hydrologic science, water resources engineering, environmental engineering and irrigation science. More specifically, Professor Singh has made original and highly significant advances in kinematic wave modeling, entropy theory and applications, stochastic modeling, hydrologic systems, watershed modeling, and risk and reliability analysis. He has published his research in more than 400 refereed articles published in over sixty separate scientific journals. In addition, he has authored or co-authored fourteen books and has edited another forty-five texts. Vijay has also made pioneering contributions in the application of systems analysis and entropy theory to a range of problems in hydraulics, hydrology and water resources.
For nearly 20 years, Professor Singh has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Water Science and Technology (WST) series for Springer. In this role, he has contributed greatly to the mutual understanding of issues among professionals working in the field through the publication of more than 60 titles in this series. He also currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the ASCE Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, and is a member of 17 journal editorial boards dealing with water, irrigation and environment. He has delivered more than 240 invited lectures, participated in the organization of 17 international conferences, chaired more than 40 conference sessions, given more than 35 keynote addresses, and examined more than 40 Ph.D. candidates abroad.
In other professional service activities, Dr. Singh has served as President and Senior Vice President of the American Institute of Hydrology (AIH). He has also served on 40 different committees of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), and American Water Resources Association (AWRA), and several international organizations, including NAFTA evaluation panels. Of particular note is his organization of a student exchange program between Canada, Mexico, and the United States. This program, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, is dedicated to increasing awareness of engineering issues faced by the three countries through educational exchange.
Dr. Singh has been the recipient of numerous national awards from professional organizations. He is a past recipient of both the ASCE Arid Land Hydraulic Engineering Award (2002) and the Ven Te Chow Award (2005). Most recently he was awarded the AIH Ray K. Linsley Award for outstanding contributions to surface water hydrology. He is a fellow of ASCE and AWRA, an AAWRE Diplomate since 2005, and a member of six international science and engineering honorary societies.
Professor Singh has volunteered his time and financial resources to a variety of charity work in the U.S. and abroad. Most significantly, he has founded and financially supported his own school to provide free secondary education to poor rural children in India. For his charitable and public service work, he was recently nominated for the Hoover medal, given by the professional societies to recognize an individual for outstanding contributions in civic and humanitarian service.
He has been licensed as a Professional Engineer for thirty-five years and has been a member of ASCE for thirty-two years and a Fellow for fourteen years. He has also been licensed as a Professional Hydrologist by the American Institute of Hydrology for twenty-four years (since the inception of AIH).
Dr. Singh was born on July 15, 1946 in Nagla Vishnu village in the Agra District in India. Dr. Singh received his early education at S.M.D.D. Inter College in Nagla Vishnu and G.B. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar in India. Later, he attended the University of Guelph in Canada for his masters and received his Ph.D. in Hydrology from Colorado State University in the U.S. and received his D.Sc. from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa.
Vijay has a wife and has two children; one son and one daughter. His son is a computer engineer at Lockheed Martin in Washington, D.C., his daughter is a systems auditing manager at Price Waterhouse Coopers in Houston, Texas. Dr. Singh's hobbies are reading, writing, traveling, and watching Indian movies. Singh added, "I am honored to be nominated as an Honorary Diplomate of the Academy."
Professor William W.G. Yeh, Ph.D., Hon.D.WRE, a Distinguished Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, pioneered the development of large-scale optimization models that utilize systems analysis techniques to plan, manage, and operate several of the nation's large-scale water resources systems. The methodology as well as the algorithms that he developed for the real-time operation of complex, multiple-purpose, multiple-reservoir systems have been adopted in the U.S. and throughout the world, most notably in Brazil, Canada, Korea, Taiwan, and the People's Republic of China. Additionally, Yeh pioneered the development of nonlinear inverse algorithms for parameter identification in groundwater hydrology. The methodologies and algorithms that Yeh developed for parameter estimation have been widely adopted in groundwater modeling.
Dr. Yeh's work has earned him distinction nationally and internationally. In 1989, he received the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) Robert E. Horton Award, now known as the Hydrological Sciences Award. In 1993, Yeh was elected a Fellow of the AGU. In 1994, Yeh received the American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) Julian Hinds Award. In 1996, Yeh was awarded Honorary Member status by ASCE. In 1999, Yeh received the Warren A. Hall Medal from the Universities Council on Water Resources (UCOWR). And in 2008, William was elected a Member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering (NAE).
Professor Yeh received his BS degree in 1961 from the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan; his MS degree in 1964 from New Mexico State University; and his PhD in 1967 from Stanford University. Throughout his career, Yeh has made major contributions to the profession through his service to ASCE and AGU, including serving as Editor of the ASCE Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management (1988-1993). Since joining UCLA in 1967, Yeh has served on the UCLA faculty in several capacities, including twice as Department Chair (1985-1988 and 2002-2007). In 1975 he received the UCLA Engineering Alumni Association Distinguished Faculty Award for excellence in teaching. To date, he has graduated 48 PhD students. Many of his former PhD students are now successful teachers, researchers, and practicing engineers at various distinguished institutions and industries in the United States and abroad.
Dr. Yeh met his wife Jennie in 1964 while he was a graduate student at Stanford and she was pursuing her PhD at UC Berkeley. They were married in March 1967 and lived in Berkeley before moving to Los Angeles that summer. Jennie worked for Aerospace Corporation until her retirement about five years ago. They have two sons; both are Harvard trained physicians and married. The older son, Michael, is a general and endocrine surgeon who joined the faculty of the UCLA Department of Surgery in 2005. He and his wife have two sons, Roan and Patrick, who are five and four years old. The Yehs' younger son, Bobby, is completing a fellowship in interventional cardiology at UC San Francisco. He and his wife are expecting a baby girl at the end of October 2008.
During his spare time, William likes to travel and watch as well as play sports. He plays tennis every weekend, but mostly doubles these days.
"I consider myself the beneficiary of both nurturing surroundings and exceptional people, and attribute any of my accomplishments in large part to them. I am particularly grateful to my students for the mutual exchange of ideas over the years. I hope they have learned from me, and I know I have become a better scholar and person because of them," Yeh reflects.
AAWRE's mission is to improve the practice, elevate standards, and advance the profession of water resources engineering by certifying engineers with specialized knowledge in water resources, recognizing the ethical practice of water resources engineering at the expert level, encouraging continued professional development for engineers, and supporting positions on water resources issues important to the public health.
The American Academy of Water Resources Engineers was founded by members of the ASCE's Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) and is an Academy of the Civil Engineering Certification, Inc.(CEC).
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