The Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, aka ASCE/EWRI, has honored UA Engineering emerita faculty member Margaret Petersen by naming an award after her.

The Margaret Petersen Outstanding Woman of the Year Award honors a female ASCE/EWRI member who has demonstrated exemplary service to the water resources and environmental community.

Petersen spent 35 years, from 1942 to 1977, working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, including a year with the Panama Canal special engineering division, and is held in high regard as a role model for women in engineering.

Petersen joined the UA College of Engineering in 1981 as a visiting associate professor specializing in water resources and hydraulics engineering. She became associate professor in 1986, and emerita associate professor in 1991.

Petersen was a faculty member in the department of civil engineering and engineering mechanics, where she taught, served as a graduate advisor, and wrote two books on water resources planning and river engineering. She is the author of more than 100 reports and papers and has contributed to numerous publications.

Environmental engineering expert Kathy Banks, head of the School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University, is the first recipient of the award, which was announced May 23 at the 2011 World Environmental & Water Resources Congress in Palm Springs, Calif.

"I am delighted to be named the 2011 Margaret Petersen Outstanding Woman of the Year," Banks said. "Margaret Petersen is a role model for those of us in engineering education and practice, and is one of the true pioneers in the water resources and environmental engineering profession. To be chosen for an award in her name is a great honor."

Assistant professor Jennifer Duan has met Petersen several times and is a member of the same UA department. "The civil engineering and engineering mechanics department has a long history of performing excellent research in hydraulic engineering, with senior faculty being recognized nationally," Duan said. "I am indeed inspired by her story."

Petersen, who lives in Tucson, Ariz., retired fully from her teaching responsibilities in 1997, but she is still invited to give lectures around the world and still participates in the engineering profession to which she has contributed so much.