
West Coast Awards
AEHS FOUNDATION ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The Annual International Conference on Soil, Water, Energy, and Air is proud to bestow the AEHS Foundation Achievement Award each year to individuals or organizations who have shown significant contributions to the field as well as outstanding environmental stewardship.
2023

Robert Ettinger
Robert Ettinger is a Senior Principal environmental scientist based in Santa Barbara, California with over 30 years of professional experience. His practice focuses on the fate and transport of contaminants in the unsaturated zone including soil vapor extraction system design, vapor emission estimation, and subsurface contaminant vapor migration to indoor air. Robbie has extensive experience in assessing and mitigating potential subsurface vapor intrusion to indoor air associated with chemical releases to soil and groundwater. His experience includes managing human health risk assessments, designing and implementing groundwater and soil vapor remediation systems, and developing risk-based strategies for environmental liability and business management initiatives. Robbie has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rice University and M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Matthew Lahvis
Matthew Lahvis is a Principal Soil and Groundwater Engineer at Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc. in Houston, Texas, where he provides technical support on soil and groundwater issues related to oil and gas operations. Matt’s role is multidisciplinary, involving research on petroleum chemical fate and transport, development of risk-based, sustainable business practices, review of site-investigation and remedial strategies, external advocacy, and legal support. Matt has authored numerous research articles and a book chapter on vapor intrusion. His research on vapor intrusion was critical in helping underpin California’s Low-Threat Tank Closure Policy and USEPA’s and ITRC’s vapor intrusion guidance. More globally, Matt served as a technical advisor in the development of vapor intrusion guidance for China, the UK, Australia, and Canada. Over Matt’s career, he has earned two CEO HSSE and Social Performance Awards, an Executive VP Brilliant People and Responsible Partner Award, and a scientific achievement award by the US EPA Office of Underground Storage Tanks. Matt is a member of the American Petroleum Institute’s Soil and Groundwater Task Force and an Associate Editor for Groundwater Monitoring and Remediation journal. Prior to joining Shell, Matt worked for 11 years at the US Geological Survey - New Jersey District where he authored the open-source unsaturated-zone transport model R-UNSAT. Matt was also an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University where he received his PhD in Civil Engineering in 1993.
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