Fellow Awards
The designation "Grade of Fellow" shall have honorary status, to which members of distinction may be elected, but for which they may not apply. A Fellow shall be a member of outstanding and extraordinary qualifications and experience in the field of agricultural, food, and/or biological engineering, and shall have met all the requirements for the grade of member. A Fellow shall have been a member of the Society for ten years, and have twenty years of active practice in the profession.
Nomination as a Fellow may be made to the Fellows Committee by ten members in good standing. To be elected, a nominee must be unanimously approved by all members of the Fellows Committee.
Awards and Fellow status are given for outstanding contributions through work in one or more of the following:
- Design and development based on originality, practicality, and applicability; the awardee must have made the major contribution to the concepts, design or development recognized.
- Extension and management based on a record of high quality work in agricultural, food, and/or biological engineering extension such as leading in extension education through groups or T.V., or by assisting farmers in innovation of new farmstead systems or components. Alternatively, the awardee may be recognized for outstanding managerial work in the food processing industry, building firms, machinery firms, irrigation firms or land drainage.
- Teaching and/or research based on a record of good teaching involving innovation in teaching or course development, and professional and enthusiastic leadership to students. Alternatively, the Awardee may be recognized for research abilities and achievements through the development of new theoretical concepts, or the design and execution of good experiments to prove conclusively the answer to some questions of value to agricultural, food and/or biological engineering.
2021 Fellow Award
Dr. Nazim Cicek, PhD, P.Eng., is granted the CSBE/SCGAB grade of Fellow, in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Engineering for agricultural, food and biological systems through research, student training, and service to CSBE/SCGAB.
Dr. Cicek is a productive researcher and caring teacher. As a faculty member at University of Manitoba for the past 20 years, Dr. Cicek has developed a strong research program in the area of waste management. He has published 130 papers in refereed journals and received about $3M in research funding. As a teacher, Dr. Cicek cares about students. He is always there if students have any questions. He has supervised 33 graduate students and many undergraduate students. Dr. Cicek is highly regarded by the local communities for his expertise in waste management and sustainable energy sources. He has worked closely with several local organizations on various environment and energy related issues and wrote many popular articles for local newspapers, covering such topics as electric vehicles, carbon taxes, and public transportation. His contributions to research and education are well recognized locally and nationally. He received the CSBE/SCGAB John Turnbull Award, the CSBE/SCGAB Jim Beamish Award, and the Manitoba Excellence in Sustainability Award in the Category of Innovation and Research for Sustainability.
2020 Fellow Award
Amit Kumar, Ph.D., P.Eng., is a Professor at the University of Alberta (U of A). He has worked in the area of bioenergy and biofuels for 20 years. His focus has been in biomass supply and logistics and its conversion for the production of energy and fuels. He has made significant contributions in the assessing the environmental and economic footprints of bioenergy systems and is a pioneer in the development of pipeline transport of biomass. He currently holds the NSERC/Cenovus/Alberta Innovates Associate Industrial Research Chair in Energy and Environmental Systems Engineering and the Cenovus Energy Endowed Chair in Environmental Engineering. He also holds Cenovus Energy Endowed Chair in Environmental Engineering. He serves as the Deputy Director of Future Energy Systems, a $75 million initiative at the U of A funded by the Government of Canada through their Canada First Research Excellence Fund. Dr. Kumar has co-authored more than 275 peer-reviewed journal publications, book chapters and technical reports. He has chaired and moderated several sessions at international/national conferences and co-authored more than 420 conference presentations/publications (109 invited). There are 28 media mentions on his research.
Over the last 20 years, Amit has been a strong supporter of CSBE, serving in various roles including regional director (Alberta), Chair and Awards Committee member, and an Associate Editor of Canadian Journal of Bioengineering. He has also helped organize the CSBE Annual General Meeting in Edmonton. Through his leadership, several new engineers have become members of the society. He has trained more than 190 highly qualified personnel. In 2011, Amit was named CSBE Young Engineer of the Year.
Amit has served on expert review panels and steering committees as chair and member including the European Commission, the National Science Foundation (USA), Natural Resources Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the California Environmental Protection Agency. He has been theme lead/member of 10 international and national research networks.
2019 Fellow Award
Dr. Danny Mann started this journey with an undergraduate major in the Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Manitoba, and he subsequently pursued graduate studies in the same department. It is worth to mention that he was the recipient of the Department Undergraduate Student Governor General’s Gold Medal. After obtaining a PhD, no other job would be as perfectly suited for Danny than a job in this engineering field. It was for this reason that he set his roots as a faculty member in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba. As a teacher, Danny always put students first, with learning as the prioritized objective. He has participated in more than 30 professional development activities and workshops associated with engineering education. His dedications to engineering education are demonstrated by the numerous teaching awards he received. One of the most notable events in his career was when he earned the Graduating Class Award for Excellence in Teaching. Being recognized by students is the undoubtedly most satisfaction as an educator he has felt thus far. As a researcher, Danny has been active in the field of precision agriculture and automation. As the Department Head for eight years, he successfully renewed his NSERC Discovery grants, which is most evidently demonstrated in increased levels of productivities in training HQPs and publications. As Department Head, not only is he available to answer our questions; he solves our problems. His effective leadership can be demonstrated by two facts: the significant increase in the student enrollment over the years, and the friendly working environment within the department. As an individual, Danny reflects before speaking, and handles all matters in a pleasant, respectful, and inoffensive manner. His personal qualities include being organized, punctual, responsible, calm, and most importantly, being fair and trustworthy. In light of his strong contributions, Dr. Mann is elected to the Grade of CSBE/SCGAB Fellow.
2019 Fellow Award
Dr Venkatesh Meda is being recognized for his outstanding and significant contributions to Agricultural, Food and Biological Engineering, particularly in the areas of Post-harvest Engineering, and value-adding processing of foods. He has demonstrated leadership in the field at local, national and international levels. Apart from being a dynamic researcher, Dr. Venkatesh is also an enthusiastic scholar/educator and has trained several graduate and postdoctoral fellows. His effort has contributed in solving some of the problems related global food production, preservation and supply chain management.
Dr. Meda’s effort in establishing International collaborative research and development partnerships is well recognised, particularly through his successes through the Canadian Common Wealth Scholarships with DFATD (Foreign Affairs, Canada), EU (European Union)-ISEKI-Mundus Food Net, and ISTP (DFATD) grants. He has extensively participated in strategic discussion(s) /seminars conducted by CIDA, World Bank, Global Institute for Food Security (GIFS), food safety, ICRISAT (India) and other International rural development topics on post-harvest engineering.
Dr. Meda was awarded as ‘distinguished Professor’ by Government of India’s Center of Excellence in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (NIFTEM; 2014, 2018) for his outstanding contributions in the field of food, chemical & Biological Engineering and management/entrepreneurship. He has published at high quality journals in the related fields.
Dr. Meda’s enthusiasm continues to thrive on integrating approaches to food systems teaching, research and development activities including community level collaboration(s), ultimately addressing the global food security challenges. He has been an active CSBE member since 1998. Dr. Meda is a worthy candidate for the Grade of CSBE/SCGAB Fellow.
2018 Fellow Award
Dennis Hodgkinson P.Eng., FEC is the President and Founder of DGH Engineering (DGH). Dennis was instrumental in the development and implementation of a variety of building systems and building service developments in the Agri-Industrial sector. He has contributed to the evolution of developing building systems that integrate wood, structural steel, and concrete elements in very wide, large industrial building complexes, which optimize cost effectiveness and energy efficiency. Dennis has also participated in the development of several precast concrete building products, non-combustible modular buildings and innovative equipment and systems for building ventilation and heating including heat recovery and biomass energy production.
Dennis has practiced as a professional engineer for over 40 years. He commenced his career in the technical and scientific knowledge extension service with the engineering group within the Manitoba Department of Agriculture from 1976 until 1989. He has been a strong supporter of CSBE serving in the capacities of Vice-President for Industry and as President.
Since 1989, Dennis has led DGH’s multidisciplinary team of engineers to grow into a 50-person practise that specializes in commercial and industrial building design, and construction across Western Canada. Embedded in the DGH team are engineers with bilingual capabilities in Mandarin and Russian that support Dennis in the development of international business opportunities.
HONOURS AND AWARDS:
Awarded title “Fellow of Engineers Canada” in recognition of outstanding support to the Engineering Profession. 2011
Recipient of the John Turnbull Award from CSAE in recognition of outstanding contributions to the structural field of agricultural engineering. 1997
Recipient of the Canadian Agricultural Engineer of the Year Award from CSAE in recognition of outstanding
