ASME Award Winners Support Student Programs

Reza S. Abhari, winner of the 2014 R. Tom Sawyer Award

Two recent ASME award winners — Reza S. Abhari, PhD, and Charles Becht IV, PhD — are doing their part to ensure the future of engineering by donating the honoraria they received with their recent awards to support programs for ASME student members.

Dr. Abhari, an ASME Fellow and professor of aerothermodynamics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), is the recipient of the 2014 R. Tom Sawyer Award for significant contributions to the gas turbine industry in both the U.S. and Europe, and for exemplary service to the Society's International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI). The award was presented in June 2014 at the 2014 ASME Turbo Expo in Dusseldorf, Germany. Abhari's $1,000 honorarium will go toward the funding of an ASME student award or project.

Charles Becht IV at the President's Luncheon during the 2014 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, where he received the 2014 J. Hall Taylor Medal.

Dr. Becht, an ASME Fellow and president of Becht Engineering Co., is the winner of the 2014 J. Hall Taylor Medal. The award, which was bestowed at the President's Luncheon at the 2014 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in Montreal, recognizes distinguished leadership and professionalism in the technical advancement of ASME codes and standards for pressure vessels and piping; and for dedication to the engineering profession, public safety and component reliability in the construction of pressure equipment. Becht donated his $1,000 honorarium to the ASME Foundation.

For the complete list of this year's award recipients, visit the 2014 ASME Honors and Awards page. For more information on the ASME Honors and Awards Program, visit www.asme.org/ about-asme/get-involved/honors-awards.