04
April
2018
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00:00 AM
Europe/Amsterdam

Annual Banquet Honors Swanson School’s 2018 Distinguished Alumni

PITTSBURGH (April 4, 2018) … This year’s Distinguished Alumni from the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering have worked with lesson plans and strategic plans, cosmetics and the cosmos, brains and barrels and bridges. It’s a diverse group, but each honoree shares two things in common on their long lists of accomplishments: outstanding achievement in their fields, and of course, graduation from the University of Pittsburgh.

The six individuals representing each of the Swanson School’s departments and one overall honoree representing the entire school gathered at the 54th annual Distinguished Alumni Banquet at the University of Pittsburgh’s Alumni Hall to accept their awards. Gerald D. Holder, US Steel Dean of Engineering, led the banquet for the final time before his return to the faculty this fall.

Wesley C. Pickard, former Chief Financial Officer of Synergy, Inc., received the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering’s Distinguished Alumni award in 2010, which qualified him to represent the Swanson School this year.  

“This is my last presentation of the Swanson School Distinguished Alumni Award as Dean of the School, and I could not be more honored to present it to Wes, as well as to our other outstanding alumni this evening,” said Dean Holder.

This year’s recipients include:

Swanson School of Engineering
Wesley C. Pickard, BSMIN ‘61
Chief Financial Officer (retired), Synergy, Inc.

Department of Bioengineering
David VanSickle, PhD BioE ’98, MD ‘01
Founder, South Denver Neurosurgery; Director, Denver DBS Center

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering
James M. Pommersheim, BSCHE ’60, MS ’62, PhD ‘70
Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Victor Bertolina, BSCE ’71
President, SAI Consulting Engineers, Inc.

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Mike Gazarik, PhD, BSEE ‘87
Vice President of Engineering, Ball Aerospace & Technology Corporation

Department of Industrial Engineering
Tracey T. Travis, BSIE ‘83
Executive Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer, The Estée Lauder Companies

Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
Leonard H. Berenfield, BSME ‘64
President (retired), Berenfield Containers, Inc.

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Author: Matt Cichowicz, Communications Writer

Contact: Paul Kovach