Award Derby Trifecta

NRCS National Water Management Engineer Tom Spofford

NRCS National Water Management Engineer Tom Spofford feels that he has scored his career and professional trifecta through his service and activities in the American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), United States Committee on Irrigation and Drainage, and the Irrigation Association.

His third professional activity win for his trifecta was when Tom and his task committee members were recognized with the 2005 Task Committee Excellence Award for their Task Committee on Standardization of Reference Evapotranspiration at the recent 2005 ASCE – Environmental Water Resources Institute meeting in Alaska. “Evapotranspiration” was recognized as a work that will advance engineering practice and water resource management. Tom’s previous trifecta wins were his 1999 recognition by the ASAE Cooperative Standards Program Committee for his superior contribution recognition for the ASAE Standard S376 - Design and, Installation and Performance of Underground Thermoplastic Irrigation Pipe and his Irrigation Association award as the 2001 Person of the Year.

Tom says that there is great satisfaction in the realization that this recognition is largely due to agency support and his professional contributions on behalf of the NRCS.
(Editor’s note: Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines trifecta as “a variation of the perfecta in which a bettor wins by selecting the first three finishers of a race in the correct order of finish.”)
Your contact is Fred Jacobs, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 202-72-4772.