Adam Nizich is the recipient of the SOM Foundation’s 2010 Structural Engineering Travel Fellowship. A December 2009 graduate of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago with a BS degree in Civil Engineering, Adam has now commenced graduate studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, with a focus on Structural Engineering. The $10,000 prize for Adam’s award winning essay, “Iconic Form: High-Speed Railroad Structures,” and travel itinerary will be used for travel to China, Japan, Western Europe and across the US, to study stations and bridges associated with high speed rail systems. Following graduation from high school in Burbank, California, Adam’s study at IIT included a semester of study abroad at the University of Sydney, Australia, and involvement with the Engineers Without Borders and the NGO Haiti Outreach, participating in a group project, working on a portion of a water supply and distribution network for rural Haiti. The project won an Honorable Mention in the EPA’s P3 sustainable design competition in Washington, DC. Adam later led a student project at IIT to raise funds primarily from the Chicago community to fund a solar energy system for a public secondary school in rural Pignon, Haiti. The student group subsequently traveled to Haiti to assist the professional solar installer in the successful installation of the solar energy system which provides lighting for the school.

Read more about the Structural Engineering Fellowship.