Senior Principal at Jacques Whitford Receives
Prestigious John B. Stirling Medal
Saint John, New Brunswick (March 3, 2008) - Dr. Arun Valsangkar, Senior Principal at Jacques Whitford, was honoured with the prestigious John B. Stirling Medal in recognition of his leadership and distinguished service at the Engineering Institute of Canada (EIC) Gala in Ottawa on Saturday.

The John B. Stirling Medal was established in the EIC’s centennial year (1987) and was first awarded in 1988. The Medal is given annually to a member of the EIC Institute, or its Member Societies, who has demonstrated leadership and distinguished service at a national level.

“We pride ourselves on having the best people in the industry on our team,” says Mike Whitford, Co-Founding Partner and Senior Vice President Service and Quality, Jacques Whitford. “To see Arun recognized by our industry is extremely rewarding. For over 35 years, he has been a driving force behind our technical excellence and central to our efforts to hire and retain the best people.”

Dr. Valsangkar, P.Eng., FCSCE, FEIC, is a specialist in soil structure interaction and centrifuge modeling and has over 35 years of combined teaching, research and consulting experience. Dr. Valsangkar is a Professor of Engineering at the University of New Brunswick.

Dr. Valsangkar has published over 100 articles and served as editor of the Canadian Geotechnical Journal, one of the world’s foremost geotechnical publications, from 2002 -2007 and associate editor from 1992 – 2002.

Throughout his career, Dr. Valsangkar’s work has been celebrated by a number of organizations including the University of New Brunswick where he received the A.P. Stuart Award for Excellence in Teaching. For his outstanding contributions in geotechnical engineering, he has received Canadian Geotechnical Society’s Meyerhof, Quigley and Stermac Awards. Dr. Valsangkar has also been elected as a Fellow by the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering, the EIC and as a By Fellow of Churchill College at Cambridge University in England.

The John B. Stirling Medal is one of many awards received by employees of Jacques Whitford, an internationally recognized leader in environmental, sustainability and earth sciences engineering. In addition to individual employee awards, Jacques Whitford’s family-friendly approach was recognized by a number of publications including Maclean’s magazine (Canada’s Top 100 Employers List), the Financial Post (Ten Best Companies to Work For), the Halifax Chronicle Herald (Maritime’s Top 10 Employers), and Today’s Parent (Top 10 Family-Friendly Employers).