Peter Nicholson awarded the 2007 Robert W. Clopton Award for Distinguished Community Service

University of Hawaiʻi
Contact:
Arlene Abiang, (808) 956-5637
External Affairs & University Relations
Posted: Apr 5, 2007


HONOLULU — Peter G. Nicholson, associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, was awarded the 2007 Robert W. Clopton Award for outstanding community service. The Clopton award recognizes a Mānoa faculty member who has played a socially significant role by applying intellectual leadership and academic expertise to the improvement of the community.

In his 16 years with the university, Nicholson used his expertise and experience in geotechnical engineering to give back to the community and his profession.

For the past 15 years, he has continued to provide technical expertise to assist the State Department of Land and Natural Resources with dam inspections. Nicholson also responded as a local volunteer to a number of geo-related disasters, including the rockfalls at Makaka Towers and Sacred Falls, and the Koloko Dam failure on Kauai last year. He was recently one of three expert engineering faculty to form a reconnaissance team to assess the damage from the October 15th Kiholo Bay and Hawaiʻi earthquakes on the Big Island.

Nicholson served the national community in a special role inspecting the hurricane protection system and causes of the catastrophic failures resulting from the 2005 Hurricane Katrina landfall on the Gulf Coast. He and his team wrote the first report to be released on the causes of the levee failure, for which he was asked to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

Nicholson recently received the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal for his contributions to the Hurricane Katrina Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force. This award is one of the highest Army honorary decorations that can be awarded to a civilian.

Nicholson will be recognized for his contributions to the university along with other UH award winners at the annual Convocation Awards scheduled for Sept. 18, 2007.

For more information, visit: http://www.hawaii.edu/about/awards/index.html