The Deep Foundations Institute (DFI) Educational Trust has awarded several scholarships to civil engineering students focusing on geotechnical and/or environmental engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The scholarships were awarded during the annual scholarship ceremony of the College of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The 2017 recipients of the Charles J. Berkel Memorial Scholarship were University of Illinois students Tomasz Rutkowski, Emiliano Alvarez and Joseph Binkowski. The awards were presented by DFI Educational Trust board member Rudy Frizzi of Langan Engineering and Environmental Services. The scholarship is named in memory of Charles J. Berkel, chairman of the board of Berkel & Company Contractors Inc., and a graduate of the University of Illinois. Berkel generously committed $1 million to the DFI Educational Trust to create the scholarship endowment fund. Currently four universities receive $12,500 annually from the Scholarship Fund: University of California at Berkeley, University of Illinois, Auburn University in Alabama and the University of Houston.

The 2017 recipient of the Dennis J. Leary Memorial Scholarship was University of Illinois student, Roland Adrian.  The award was presented by Alan Poeppel of Langan. The scholarship is named for Dennis J. Leary, a partner at Langan and a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The scholarship is part of the trust’s Langan Engineering and Environmental Services Legacy Fund, which was established in 2015 with a $200,000 donation from Langan Engineering & Environmental Services and an additional contribution of more than $100,000 generously made by many principals of Langan.

The DFI is an international association of contractors, engineers, academics and suppliers in the deep foundations industry with more than 3,300 members worldwide. For more information about the Deep Foundations Institute, visit www.dfi.org.