Trio receive DFI President’s Awards

Established in 2016, the DFI President’s Awards are given at the discretion of the president to recognise the outstanding contributions and service of members who advance the work of DFI.

This year’s awards were presented to Paul Axtell of Dan Brown and Associates; Sebastian Lobo-Guerrero of American Geotechnical & Environmental Services; and Chris Woods, vice-president at Densification Inc.

Axtell is a DFI trustee, chair of the Drilled Shaft Committee and trustee liaison for the Manufacturers, Suppliers and Service Providers Committee. He was the first technical program chair to oversee a DFI virtual conference (SuperPile ‘20), and chaired SuperPile ’22 when it was held in-person in St Louis. Axtell is a paper reviewer for DFI’s annual conferences and a frequent speaker/author at DFI events, including this year in Berlin at the DFI-EFFC International Conference on Deep Foundations and Ground Improvement and at SuperPile ’22.

Lobo-Guerrero is a national and international ambassador as well as a social media influencer for DFI. He was conference chair for the 2020 Annual Conference held virtually and for the 2022 Annual Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. He is also a contributor, interviewer and interviewee for many of DFI’s podcasts and a member of the joint ADSC-DFI Anchored Earth Retention Committee.

Woods was a technical program co-chair for this year’s annual conference. He is a regular contributor, interviewer and interviewee for DFI podcasts and a member of the Ground Improvement and Women in Deep Foundations Committees. He is also a guest editor for two upcoming special issues of the DFI Journal focused on ground improvement.

The DFI is an international association of contractors, engineers, manufacturers, suppliers, academics and owners in the deep foundations industry. It has more than 4,000 members worldwide.