ASCE has honored Aaron D. Dotson, P.E., M.ASCE, with the 2020 Can-Am Civil Engineering Amity Award for an academic and research career dedicated to water and wastewater treatment with specialization in cold regions processes with small, remote systems typical of Alaskan Bush communities.
Dotson has had a very impactful career for the relatively short time he has been practicing engineering. He is currently serving as the Interim Vice-Provost for Research, as well as Director, of the Applied Environmental Research Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). His academic and research career has focused on water and wastewater treatment with specialization in cold regions processes and especially small, remote systems typical of Alaska Bush communities. He is a well-respected professor at UAA, receiving awards for service to the Department (Civil Engineering), Technology Fellow (UAA), and the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Academic Research. His graduate students are now serving as water and wastewater systems designers and operators in cold regions of the United States and Canada.
Dotson has provided service to ASCE and AWWA in addition to several journal editorial boards. He serves as chair of the ASCE Cold Regions Engineering Division (CRED), Environment and Public Health Committee, where he is leading the efforts to rewrite the CRED bestseller Cold Regions Utilities Monograph. In this effort, Dotson has recruited and worked with many engineers from Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon, and Northwest Territories to ensure that accepted practices for the design of water and wastewater systems are available for dissemination to cold regions communities.
The Can-Am Civil Engineering Amity Award is given to a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers or of the Canadian Society of Civil Engineers for either a specific instance that has had a continuing benefit in understanding and goodwill, or a career of exemplary professional activity that has contributed to the amity of the United States and Canada.
