DFI Educational Trust awards scholarships

Hawthorne, N.J. — The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust awarded two Manuel Fine Civil Engineering Scholarships and two of three 2017 Langan Engineering & Environmental Services Legacy Scholarships.

The first Manuel Fine Civil Engineering Scholarships were awarded to Patrick Marquis, a graduate student pursuing an M.S. in civil engineering at the University of Toronto, and Daniel Currie, an undergraduate civil engineering student at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON, Canada. The awards are in the amount of $2,000.

The Manuel Fine Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund was established in 2013 with generous donations from Bermingham Foundation Solutions, where Fine was employed for 23 years, the Heavy Construction Association of Ontario, the Heavy Construction Association of Toronto and the Ontario Association of Foundation Specialists. The fund honors Manuel Fine, who served DFI for 24 years in many roles, including trustee, president, executive director, managing editor of Deep Foundations magazine, and in recent years, as publisher of the DFI Journal. The fund will provide scholarships only for civil engineering students attending universities in the Province of Ontario. Fine is a graduate of the University of Toronto.

The Langan Engineering & Environmental Services Legacy Scholarships fund was established in 2015 with a $200,000 donation from Langan Engineering & Environmental Services and an additional contribution of $102,000 generously made by many principals of Langan.

The fund, which provides scholarships to civil engineering students focusing on geotechnical and/or environmental engineering, includes three scholarships honoring former distinguished members of Langan:

• The Bernard F. Langan Scholarship at Purdue University
• The Dennis J. Leary Memorial Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• The Donald J. Murphy Memorial Scholarship at NYU Tandon School of Engineering

The 2017 recipient of the $5,000 Bernard F. Langan Scholarship at Purdue is Venkata Sakleshpur, a Ph.D. candidate in civil engineering. His research topic is Analysis of Direct and Mixed (Piled) MSE Abutments.

The 2017 recipient of the $5,000 Donald J. Murphy Memorial Scholarship at NYU Tandon School of Engineering is Julia Langewis, a fifth-year undergraduate student studying civil engineering and mathematics. She is interested in environmental engineering and worked for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Water and Sewer Operations last summer.

The 2017 Dennis J. Leary Memorial Scholarship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will be awarded in the spring.

Donations to the Manuel Fine Civil Engineering Scholarship Fund and the Langan Engineering & Environmental Services Legacy Scholarship Fund can be made online at www.dfitrust.org.