April 17, 2015
–Patrick Kurp, Engineering Communications
Adrian Bizzaro, a senior graduating in mechanical engineering, has received the 2015 Engineering Leadership Award from the Rice Center for Engineering Leadership.
Among those recommending Bizzaro for the RCEL award was Pedro J. Alvarez, the George R. Brown Professor of Engineering and chair of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University. Alvarez singled out Bizarro’s role as president of the Rice chapter of Engineers without Borders (EWB), one of three winners of the 2014 EWB–USA Premier Project Awards for bringing clean drinking water to a small town in Nicaragua, Lucidia Mantilla. Alvarez wrote:
adrian2015_01“As project leader of the Nicaragua 1 team, Adrian was able to successfully manage a team of 40 Rice students. Adrian effectively delegated deliverables and split the team into functioning units, mimicking similar strategies of companies in industry. He applied the lesson he learned during his internships to emulate the different stages a project takes in engineering.”
In her letter of recommendation, Catherine A. Leslie, executive director of EWB-USA, echoed Alvarez’s assessment, saying Bizzaro’s leadership enabled the Rice chapter to be “one of the most successful in the nation.”
This year, Bizzaro received the Rice Engineering Alumni (REA) Outstanding Leadership Excellence Award, and last year its 2014 REA International Service Award. During his term as EWB president, the chapter received the 2014 Exemplary Student Organization by the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists.
Bizzaro began working for Chevron in Bakersfield, Calif., as a project management intern after his sophomore year. He led a $2-million project and managed three remote technical teams. The following summer he worked for Chevron in Houston.
After graduation, Bizzaro will go to work for Chevron as a subsea facilities engineer in the Gulf of Mexico as part of a five-year training program, during which he will earn an MBA.