2011-2012

O’Shaughnessy Receives Water Association Award

James O’Shaughnessy, professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received the 2012 Clair N. Sawyer Award from the New England Water Environment Association. The award, established in 1976, recognizes individuals who have given outstanding service to their profession and to the association, which consists of 2,100 water and wastewater professionals from throughout New England who volunteer their time, energy and expertise to preserve, protect and manage New England’s water environment. O’Shaughnessy, whose research focuses on sustainability and green engineering, industrial waste and pollution prevention, and hazardous waste destruction, joined WPI in 1986 as head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. Previously, he headed the Environmental Engineering Laboratory at Northeastern University and was an engineer for the California Department of Water Resources and the New Hampshire Department of Highways. A native of Cambridge, Mass., he earned a BS in civil engineering from the University of New Hampshire and an MS in sanitary engineering and a PhD in civil engineering from Penn State University.