College of Engineering gives 2016 Awards for Excellence

The College of Engineering at North Carolina State University gave three outstanding staff members Awards for Excellence at a ceremony held April 18 at the Monteith Research Center on NC State’s Centennial Campus. Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering, presented the awards.

The 2016 Awards for Excellence went to Hamid Akbari of Industry Expansion Solutions, John “Steve” Cameron of the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Ginger McGlamery of the Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering.

The winners received eight hours of paid time off, a $250 check and a plaque. Winners were made eligible for the university-wide Awards for Excellence.

Other nominees for the awards were:

• Nicole Hedges, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Steve Lipa, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Barbara Smith, College of Engineering – Dean’s Office
• Karen Autry, FREEDM Center
• Todd Gardner, Department of Computer Science
• Lesley Hubbard, Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Garry Nelson, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Laurinda Perez, College of Engineering – Dean’s Office
• Jennifer Raab, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Kalliopi (Claire) Sideri, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Toby Tung, Department of Materials Science and Engineering

About the winners

Hamid Akbari is the senior process engineer for Industry Expansion Solutions. He has worked with the Mineral Research Laboratory (MRL) to develop state- and corporate-funded projects and serves as part of the adjunct faculty in the Department of Environmental Studies at UNC-Asheville to advance MRL’s Educational Outreach program. During his time with the MRL, he voluntarily proposed and developed a new technique to address the February 2014 coal ash spill in Eden, N.C. that led to development of cement-less concrete that has an 80-percent lower carbon footprint. He has also been an active participant in educating the public on coal ash and sustainable utilization of it.

John “Steve” Cameron is a specialty trades technician in the Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering. He conducts two safety workshops each semester for MAE students who wish to use the student machine shop, as well as one-to-one training for graduate students. His exemplary safety record is due in no small part to his safety-minded approach to his work ensuring that the machine shop remains clean and safe and that the university safety plan he maintains for it remains up-to-date.

Ginger McGlamery is the director of finance and administration in the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering. Her position provides her with a large degree of responsibility, including management of the department’s budget and state and research budgets numbering in the millions of dollars, as well as employee training and development. She has also worked to develop a workbook that allows department leaders to review departmental budgets in one place, coordinate all revenue sources and expenditures and create plans for expenditure management and reconciling.