It’s hard to believe my term is almost up. It seemed like only yesterday that the Board asked me to serve as President for a second time. We have had an exciting time this year.

Our Student Chapter, University at Buffalo, received the NYS Council 2014 Student Chapter Award and the ASCE Region 1 Student Chapter Award. The Steel Bridge Team placed 2nd in the Regional Competition at West Point and 4th overall at the National Competition in Kansas City. The list of activities they participated and volunteered in this year was extensive. I would like to extend a special thanks to Student Section President Anna Kelting and her officers for doing a fine job. I have been at many functions over the year and have heard the praises of our student group.

We have reached out this year and ran many successful events with our sister organizations: BAPG, ASCE Rochester Section, ASIC, APWA, ITE, ACEC, ABCD OF WNY, and NYSSPE – Erie – Niagara Branch. I hope you participated in a least one of them.

We have been fortunate to have a number of our section members recognized statewide and nationally.

George Cotroneo received the NYS Council 2014 Government Engineer of the Year Award
Dr. Michael C. Constantinou, Ph.D., M. ASCE of SUNY at Buffalo received the 2015 Nathan M. Newmark Medal for his work on seismic dampers
Apostolos A., Sarlis, S.M. ASCE, Dr. Andrei M. Reinhorn Ph.D., P.E. F.ASCE, Satish Nagarajaiah Ph.D., F.SEI, Dr. Michael C. Constantinou, Ph.D., M. ASCE and Douglas P. Taylor A.M. ASCE received the 2015 Moisseiff Award for their report on Dampers

We also created a new section website. This was a long time coming and we appreciate your patience as we continue to update the new site with relevant information. We hope that the material is presented in a clear and precise manner, and that registering for events has become easier. If you see something we may have missed or have any comments please fill out a contact form. A special thanks to Robert Leipler and Brendon Reyell for all their work on our new website.

In spite of all our successes this year, we are still looking for volunteers to serve on our Board of Directors and Committees for the upcoming year. We are experiencing the same shortage of volunteers as other sections in the state. We are looking for an individual to serve as Vice President and Jason Havens has agreed to serve as President again in 2016. Please contact our President-Elect, Marco Scofidio, or myself if you are interested in serving.

Finally, I would like to thank the members of my Board for their patience and help in making this year a success.

Rick Kotecki
ASCE Buffalo Section - President