Engineer Leo Lawson (left) receives the 'Award for Excellence in Engineering' from Harold C. Nembhard, president of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers at the JIE dinner held November 17 at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus. - CONTRIBUTEDLEO LAWSON has been a civil engineer for more than a generation, giving "exemplary service" to his profession both in Jamaica and internationally, for which he was honoured with the Jamaica Institution of Engineers Award for Excellence.
Mr. Lawson began practising as a professional engineer in 1958 after graduating from Glasgow University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. Later he would add a Diploma of Imperial College in Public Health Engineering to his qualifications in 1970.
Mr. Lawson first worked in the United Kingdom where he qualified as a Charter Engineer and member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (UK), before returning to Jamaica in 1961.
By age 34, still relatively young, Mr. Lawson had risen to the top engineering post of technical director of the National Water Authority, four years after joining the agency as executive engineer in 1963.
With the merging of the rural based NWA and the Water Commission (Kingston and St. Andrew) in 1981, he became the first Director of Engineering of the newly founded National Water Commission (NWC).
He gave 23 years of service to the public water sector before retiring from the NWC to form Lawson and Associates Limited, a consulting firm specialising in sanitary engineering.
As a private consultant, Mr. Lawson has been involved with several water, wastewater and solid waste projects in Jamaica, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.
He is also a Founder Member of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers and its predecessors, the Institution of Engineers, Jamaica for which he served as president in 1974/75.
He sat on the JIE Council as vice president in 1994/95; is founder and past president of the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association; deputy chairman of the Natural Resources Conservation Authority between 1991 and 1995; and chairman of the Consultative Committee of the Contractor General from 1991 to 1998.
He was appointed chairman of the newly established National Contracts Committee earlier this month.
A registered Professional Engineer, Mr. Lawson has served on the Professional Engineers Registration Board since January 1996 and is presently the Chairman of its Registration Act Enforcement Committee.
He also sits as a director of the two year old JIE Foundation.
The award was presented last week Friday at the JIE's annual dinner held at the Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus.
