HR Wallingford scientist receives US government award for heroism

10 November 2015


HR Wallingford's Professor Andrew Manning has been awarded the Exemplary Act Award by the US Department of the Interior's US Geological Survey (USGS), in recognition of a heroic act which resulted in lives being saved.

As part of a cooperative agreement between HR Wallingford and the USGS California Water Science Centre, Manning regularly joins forces with USGS staff to carry out sediment transport surveys off the coast of the US.

Manning was returning by boat in rough water from a survey in the southernmost part of San Francisco Bay on the evening of 17 April 2014, when he and three USGS colleagues (Kurt Weidich, David Schoellhamer and William Chan) saw a sailboat entangled in one of the Port of Redwood City channel markers. When a nearby vessel signalled and requested assistance, the survey team stepped in and transported five injured people to shore. One person receiving CPR unfortunately did not survive, but a man with a severe head wound did recover.

For his decisive and immediate action in the rescue operation, Manning was granted the Exemplary Act Award of the Department of the Interior. As he explains: "Fieldwork in any marine environment can be a hazardous pursuit and you always have to be prepared for any eventuality. We were all just pleased that we could be of assistance during this emergency situation."

The awards were officially issued during the 2015 USGS Honours Awards Ceremony held at Reston, Virginia but Manning was unable to attend due to further fieldwork commitments. He was recently presented with his award by Professor David Schoellhamer, the Chief Scientist for the San Francisco Estuary Sediment Transport Project, from the US Geological Survey California Water Science Centre.

Usually only granted to US Federal employees, it is very rare for a UK citizen to be granted such an award, and Manning was the only UK citizen to receive such an award during 2015.

Andrew Manning is a principal scientist at HR Wallingford in the UK, and is a world-leading marine scientist specialising in sediment transport within coastal, estuarial and fluvial locations.



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