Awards

On October 1, 2005, at the annual ASCE Educational Activities Committee meeting, the outgoing editor of the Journal, Brian Brenner, was presented with the Richard R. Torrens Award. This award is a reflection of his distinguished service in significantly improving the quality of the Journal as well as increasing its submissions.

Richard R. Torrens served ASCE for $17\text{years}$ in the publications Department at Headquarters and was Manager of Professional and Technical Publications at his untimely death in 1984. The high quality of ASCE’s journals is in no small measure a result of his dedication and his support of the volunteer journal editors. As a reflection of his distinguished service, the Richard R. Torrens Award will honor volunteer journal editors who make outstanding contributions to the ASCE publications program. The award will be made by the ASCE Board Committee on Publications to a journal editor whose contributions are considered outstanding. No more than one award shall be made in a single year, and it shall not be required that an award be made every year.

I would like to announce the Best Paper Awards winners selected from the October 2004 and January, April, and July 2005 issues.

From our regular papers, the best paper award goes to the following:

T. Michael Toole, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, for his paper “Increasing Engineers’ Role in Construction Safety: Opportunities and Barriers.” His paper was published in the July 2005 issue, Volume 131, Number 3.

From our legal affairs papers, the best paper award goes to the following:

Joe Horlen, Neil Eldin, and Yashambari Ajunkya, from the Construction Science Department at Texas A&M University, for their paper “Reverse Auctions: Controversial Bidding Practice.” This paper was published in the January 2005 issue, Volume 131, Number 1.

I encourage you to dig out your back issues and reread these fine papers. This year the voting was extremely close. The finalists from among the other papers nominated were

“Survey of the National Civil Engineering Curriculum” by Jeffrey S. Russell and W. B. Stouffer, Volume 131, Issue 2, April 2005.

“Rehabilitation of Historic Bridges” by Eric DeLony and Terry Klein, Volume 131, Issue 3, July 2005.

“International Construction Dispute Adjudication under International Federation of Consulting Engineers Conditions of Contract and the Dispute Adjudication Board” by Bryan Seifert, Volume 131, Issue 2, April 2005

The quality of our Journal depends on the quality of our author submissions, and manuscripts of this caliber provide a valuable service to the profession.