2014 Alumni Achievement Medals and Friend of the Faculty award

Each year, Alumni Achievement Medals are handed out at the Faculty of Engineering Awards Dinner to an outstanding set of individuals in recognition of their hard work and dedication to the field of engineering. In addition, a Friend of the Faculty award is presented to recognize exceptional support of UW’s Faculty of Engineering. Here are this year’s recipients:

Alumni Achievement Medal for Professional Achievement:

Alison Brooks

Alison Brooks (BES ’85, BARCH ’88) is founder and creative director of Alison Brooks Architects, based in London, England. She is considered one of the leading architects of her generation and was named outstanding female architect in the world by Architects Journal magazine in 2013. Her award-winning designs have covered a variety of sites, from private houses to an Oxford College, and her firm is the only UK practice to have won the Royal Institute of British Architects three most prestigious awards for architecture. She takes pride in the diversity of her work and her exploration of beautiful buildings that can be affordable and appreciated by the general public.

Alumni Achievement Medal for Academic Excellence:

Mohammed Yusuf Chisti

Mohammed Yusuf Chisti (PhD ’88, Chemical), recognized for his research achievements in chemical and biological engineering, currently works as a

professor at the School of Engineering at Massey University in New Zealand. His research focuses on sustainable production of chemicals, materials and fuels through biotechnology and he is internationally recognized for his extensive and ground-breaking work on airlift bioreactors. He is one of the most cited authors in the emerging field of algal biofuels and has published over 300 journal articles, book chapters and books. He is highly sought as a consultant and has advised numerous organizations and governments in nearly a dozen countries.

Team Alumni Achievement Medal:

Baylis Medical

Classmates from the Electrical program back in the 1980s, Frank Baylis (BASc ’86, Electrical) and Kris Shah (BASc ’86, Electrical) of Baylis Medical, are this year’s Team Alumni Medal recipients. With over 200 employees, and offices in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Bayvis is a leading developer, manufacturer and supplier of high-tech medical devices. Its innovations include the first cooled-RF platform for pain management procedures and the OsteoCool® system for treatment of pain emanating from metastatic bone tumors. Frank and Kris were named Ernst & Young’s 2011 Quebec Health Sciences Entrepreneurs of the Year Award in recognition of their work in the Canadian medical device industry.

Young Alumni Achievement Medal:

Khaled Al Sabawi

Khaled Al Sabawi (BASc ’06, Computer), the first certified geothermal engineer in the Middle East, is the founder and president of MENA Geothermal, a green energy business that installed the first geothermal systems in Palestine in 2007. His company is a two-time winner of the Energy Globe Award (2008, 2011). Sawabi was named one of the world’s top energy entrepreneurs by Global Post in 2010 and was featured in Forbes Middle East magazine in 2014. He is also the founder of TABO, a development project that is part of Union and Construction and Investment, one of the largest real estate development companies in Palestine. TABO offers affordable, registered plots of residential land in the West Bank.

Friend of the Faculty Award:

The Marsland Family

The 2014 award was presented to Waterloo region business and community leaders, the Marsland Family. The Marslands have helped fund a number of Waterloo Engineering’s student teams and can often be seen at campus events. The family donated $1 million to the building of what is today the Sedra Student Design Centre in Engineering 5. You’ll find the Marsland Family Pathway at the Centre, created in recognition of the family’s generous support of Waterloo Engineering.