SECTION NEWS
CA-NV AWWA Honors Outstanding Members of 2021 By Lynn Lipinski
THE 2021 ANNUAL FALL CONFERENCE WAS HELD ENTIRELY ONLINE due to health precautions related to the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual awards ceremony brought water industry professionals together to honor
supporters and volunteers whose efforts stood out within an extraordinary year.
www.ca-nv-awwa.org 9
The AWWA annually presents the George Warren Fuller
Award as a surprise honor to members whose distinguished
service exhibits excellence and achievement in the areas of
the award’s namesake, including engineering, diplomacy
and leadership. The Fuller Award comes from AWWA, but
honorees are put forward by the Section. In the spirit of
maintaining the surprise to this legacy awards’ recipients,
Association Director Heather Collins and Section Executive
Director Sue Mosburg (both previous Fuller Award winners)
for the second year in a row reimagined the ceremony by
organizing nearly 30 other former Fuller Award recipients to
join the videoconference and congratulate the winners.
Brent Alspach and Craig
Thompson Elected to
George Warren Fuller
Award Society
Though the recogni-tion
ceremony was virtual,
the appreciation was heartfelt for this year’s awardees — two
dedicated members whose leadership and skills have been in-strumental
to the Section’s success and whose extraordinary
service and triumphs echo those of George Warren Fuller.
Brent Alspach was recognized for his many accom-plishments
in drinking water, potable water reuse and
wastewater research and education. He was inspired to
specialize in water while earning undergraduate and grad-uate
chemical engineering degrees at Cornell University
and currently serves as principal environmental engineer
and director of applied research for Arcadis. He is a pop-ular
speaker, whose research has been recognized by the
Membrane Technology Conference.
Since his college days, Alspach has been motivated by
the desire to make a positive contribution to society. One
way he does this is through his work with associations like
AWWA. An active volunteer who gives back, this Fuller
awardee is the immediate past president of the American
Membrane Technology Association
and currently serves as chair
of the AWWA Water Quality &
Technology Division Board of
Trustees, as well as on the advisory
and editorial boards for Journal
AWWA, AWWA Water Science and
Opflow.
Craig Thompson was also hon-ored
with the George Fuller Award
for his exceptional skills in engineer-ing
and his passion for education
and service to the water community.
His interest began at a young age as
an operator of a spring-supplied wa-
“Thank you
so much for
this award;
it’s sincerely
humbling.
Needless to
say, it is a
complete shock,”
Alspach said
over the Annual
Conference Zoom
as he accepted
his George Fuller
Award.
/www.ca-nv-awwa.org
