CME’s Professor of Practice, Chris Burke, wins the 2010 ASCE Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award
The 2010 Edmund Friedman Professional Recognition Award is presented to Christopher B. Burke, Ph.D., P.E., D.WRE, F.ASCE for outstanding service to the profession of engineering demonstrated by technical merits, leadership efforts in his company and in classrooms and laboratories at several universities, and his commitment to improving the civil engineering profession through the guidance of young engineers. Dr. Burke has advanced the profession through the employment and development of many civil engineers. In 1986, he started a consulting engineering and surveying firm. It has since grown to 420 employees and brings in fifty interns during the summer. Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd. (CBBEL) is headquartered in Rosemont, Illinois with nine branch offices in Illinois and Indiana. Dr. Burke has actively developed numerous programs and processes within his firm to ensure that young engineers have opportunities to develop public speaking, management, and presentation skills. Outside the office, Dr. Burke is a professor of practice at the University of Illinois Chicago and presents seminars on storm water, wetlands, and ethics. He has served actively in many professional organizations. Furthermore, he and his wife have established endowments and scholarships for students at Purdue and VMI. In 2009, Dr. Burke received the Civil Engineer of the Year Award from the Illinois Section of ASCE and the Corporate Philanthropic award from the West Suburban Philanthropic Network recognizing his community service. He has been widely recognized with awards too numerous to mention, but more interestingly, he was awarded the Edmund Friedman Young Engineer Award in 1986 from ASCE. In addition to his obvious work with students and young engineers, his passion for engineering is probably most visible through the impacts he has had on his own children. Three of his four children have either graduated from or are pursuing civil engineering or construction degrees.