Thomas Kavanagh

2010 Recipient:

Erik Metzger is a Senior Transportation Engineer in the New York City office of Parsons Brinckerhoff. He has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from small environmental impact studies to large-scale projects such as the No. 7 Subway Extension and Access to the Region's Core/Trans-Hudson Express Tunnel. His interests lie in developing microscopic traffic simulation models, transportation master plans and conceptual designs for transportation facilities.

Mr. Metzger earned his bachelors and masters degrees in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1998 and 2000, respectively. Although he joined ASCE as an undergraduate at Rensselaer, he became actively involved with the Society through the Met Section's Younger Member Forum, first serving as the YMF's Student Outreach Coordinator and later as its President and Secretary. In 2005, he was selected as one of ASCE's New Faces of Engineering during National Engineers Week. Mr. Metzger has managed the Met Section's listserv since its inception in 2006 and the Met Section's website starting with its redesign in 2008. The following year he became the Chair of the Section's Technology Committee, which is responsible for the administration of the website, listserv and eRoom as well as the publication of monthly newsletters. In 2009, the Met Section was selected by ASCE as the recipient of both the National Outstanding Section and Branch Web Site Award for Very Large Sections and Branches and the Younger Member Group Website Award for Large Sections and Branches.

More recently, Erik has also become involved with the Section's History & Heritage and Membership Committees. In 2008, Mr. Metzger managed one of ASCE's information booths during the Brooklyn Bridge 125th Anniversary Celebration, an event for which the Met Section received a History & Heritage Citation from the Society. Through his research of the Section's archives, newspaper articles, and collections at the New York Public Library, he has written and published a significant amount of historical information about the Met Section and its civil engineering landmarks on the website. This year, he helped to organize the formal dedication ceremonies for three of the East River bridges as National Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks. Last summer, he led the development of a general membership survey for Met Section members using the Section's website.

Mr. Metzger is also a member of the Institute of Transportation Engineers and the Chi Epsilon civil engineering honor society.

Past Recipients: