Damon S. Williams Scholarship

The Damon S. Williams Scholarship provides support to promising minority graduate students who are studying Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil Engineering (CEE) in the Grainger College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Preference is given to those individuals who study water and wastewater engineering.  

Throughout his career, Damon S. Williams (BS 78) has played a key role in water infrastructure planning, design and development for numerous major municipalities across the country. He has performed major projects, many of them award-winning, for predominant water agencies in Arizona, California, Texas, Oregon and Nevada. Williams has played a key role in addressing water scarcity and sustainability issues throughout the arid Western United States. He contributed significantly to the implementation of water reuse and water recycling in numerous projects, and helped design more than a dozen recycled water treatment facility projects.

Williams was one of six recipients of 2022 Grainger College of Engineering Alumni Awards for Distinguished Service. This award is conferred upon exceptional alumni each year and recognizes recipients for professional distinction through outstanding leadership, contributions to the field of engineering, creativity and entrepreneurship; as well as service to society, the professional community, and to the department, college or university. In 2004, Williams was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Alumni Association.

Past recipients:

2021     Hope Hunter

2020     Hope Hunter

2019     Mekhakhem Kheperu

2018     Mekhakhem Kheperu

2017     Timothy Alston

2016     Timothy Alston

2013     Bryan Smith 

2012     Bryan Smith