Congratulations to Technical Principal – Bridge Engineer Sabina Piras, who won the 2025 Young Engineer Award at the ENVI Awards in Tāmakai Makaurau Auckland on Friday 25 July.
The Young Engineer Award recognises early-career engineers who’ve already made significant accomplishments and show promise for future leadership in the profession.
"This recognition means a great deal – not just to me personally, but as a reflection of the incredible mentors, colleagues, and collaborators I’ve had the privilege to work alongside throughout my career," says Sabina on LinkedIn.
"I am especially grateful for the support from Jeremy Waldin, Michelle Brock, Alessandro Palermo and my colleagues at WSP in New Zealand."
Head of Bridges, Maritime & Structures Jeremy Waldin says Sabina is an outstanding engineer and a worthy winner of this award.
"Sabina’s exceptional expertise, leadership, and dedication have consistently propelled her to the forefront of seismic design and infrastructure resilience," he says. "She has been involved in the design of landmark and community impacting projects and her leadership has been instrumental in delivering some of our most complex and impactful infrastructure projects, such as the Waitematā Harbour Connections initiative and the Cyclone Gabrielle bridge reconstruction efforts.
"Sabina's novel PhD research on low-damage dissipative controlled rocking systems has laid the groundwork for practical solutions to bridge design, effectively addressing the critical challenges of soil-structure interaction. Her findings are shaping seismic design practices in New Zealand and are poised to influence global standards.
"Beyond her technical contributions, Sabina embodies the qualities of a true leader and mentor. She fosters collaboration, promotes knowledge sharing, and inspires a culture of continuous learning."
The award was judged by a panel of three experienced engineers including two past winners. They praised Sabina's commitment to knowledge-sharing, mentoring and community connection – from the Puketapu Bridge rebuild to lecturing and shaping national engineering standards.
