A total of 14 employees and a doctoral student were the recipients of this year’s individual awards announced May 1 at TTI Day at the Brazos County Expo Center Ballroom.
The award ceremony is one of the highlights of the annual gathering. This is the 18th year that TTI Day has been held to honor Institute employees and give the agency’s director a chance to deliver his “state of the Institute” address. The awards are sponsored by Trinity Industries, a long-time supporter of TTI.
The individual award winners were:
- Mehdi Azimi — Doctoral Student
- Tara Ramani — New Researcher Award
- Dan Walker —Research Technical Staff
- Michael Vickich — Research Technical Staff
- Linda Castillo — Research Support Staff
- Andy Garner — Administrative Technical Staff
- Susie Catalina — Administrative Support Staff
- Chris Sasser — Administrative Professional Staff
- Jeff Borowiec — Researcher Award
- Joe Zietsman — Researcher Award
- Kay Fitzpatrick —Senior Researcher
- Steve Roop — G. Sadler Bridges Sr. Researcher
- Brian Long — Gregory P. Richmond Administrative Professional Staff
- Christy Harris — Charles J. “Jack” Keese Career Achievement for Agency Support
- John Mounce —Charley V. Wootan Career Achievement for Research
Also, four graduate students were honored with Keese-Wootan Fellowships:
- Lisa Larsen — $1500
- Yuging Zhang — $1500
- Lisa Minjares — $750
- Prem Devarasetty — $750
In addition, students affiliated with the Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC) and the University Transportation Center for Mobility (UTCM) were recognized for awards received earlier this year:
- Lisa Larsen — UTCM Student of the Year
- Benjamin Sperry — SWUTC William J. Harris Outstanding Doctoral Student Award
- James Robertson — SWUTC/TAMU Outstanding Master’s Student
- Christopher Jones — SWUTC/TAMU Most Outstanding Student