Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering students Andrew Feldman, Tommy Thompson, and Dianna Vogel are recent recipients of The Steven E. Giegerich Memorial Award. This award is given annually to one or more graduate students in the Department. In 1984, John “Jack” Giegerich established this award to honor his son Steven. While a student at Drexel, Steven was killed in a motorcycle accident. Since its founding, more than 40 Drexel students have benefited from this award. Mr. Giegerich also hosts an annual luncheon that provides the opportunity for current and past recipients to meet to discuss academic, professional, and personal interests.
Andrew Feldman (pictured left) is from Allentown, Pennsylvania and is a BS/MS student in Civil Engineering with a concentration in water resources engineering. He is currently an officer of the Chi Epsilon Civil Engineering Honors Society and a member of Pennoni Honors College. He is also a co-captain of Drexel’s Division I golf team. Andrew works with Associate Professor Franco Montalto’s Sustainable Water Resources Engineering Laboratory (SWRE) to conduct research on green infrastructure in Bronx, NY. This research is to determine if urban parks should be used for stormwater management efforts. His responsibilities include hydraulic computations of rain garden inflows and outflows and this research will be transferred into his master’s thesis paper. Andrew intends to continue his academic and research interests in hydrology, hydrogeology, and hydraulics for he is currently applying to doctorate programs. His goal is to become a professor so he can devote his professional life to researching topics such as the effects of population growth and climate change on freshwater resources and educating others about these topics.
Tommy Thompson (pictured center) is from Pine Hill, Camden County, New Jersey and is a BS/MS student in Environmental Engineering, concentrating in Human Risk. He is also minoring in Ecology and Accounting. Tommy works with Assistant Professor Christopher Sales in the Sales Laboratory. The lab work he is currently involved in is a continuation of his most recent co-op, which was also in the Sales Laboratory. Tommy works with doctoral student Jacob Price using high-density photobioreactors containing cultivated algae, as a method to treat wastewater effluent streams. These bioreactors were developed to remove nutrients that cause eutrophication in surface waters. Tommy’s current experiment intends to identify and characterize both the dissolved gas concentrations and the algae-bacteria relationships within a bioreactor. He has experience with the daily maintenance of these bioreactors, the sampling of influent and effluent water, as well some data analysis and analytical instrumentation. After graduation, Tommy hopes to return to The Philadelphia Water Department (where he completed his first two co-ops), to work for the Office of Watersheds.
Dianna Vogel (pictured right) is from Snow Hill, Maryland and is a BS/MS student in Civil Engineering with a structural concentration. She is also minoring in Engineering Management. Dianna is a current member of Drexel’s ASCE student chapter, and in the past has been the organization’s Secretary and a mentor. Previously, Dianna worked with Associate Professor Franco Montalto’s SWRE lab assisting with lab administration and data analysis. Dianna’s most recent co-op was with the structural department of Burns Engineering in Philadelphia. During this time she performed load calculations for a building under renovation, used the structural analysis design software STAAD to verify and analyze load data, used Revit for structural modeling, and reviewed steel and rebar sample drawings. Dianna is particularly interested in sustainable building design (e.g. green roofs), nondestructive evaluation, and structural behavior. After she graduates she is looking to secure a job as a structural engineer and obtain her Professional Engineer’s (PE) license.