President’s Award

The President’s Award honours an individual who has rendered excellent service to the Institution and the profession. After much deliberation an exception was made, allowing 2022 SAICE President Prof. Marianne Vanderschuren to present the 2022 award to two deserving candidates: Tauqeer Ahmed and Sharon Shunmugam.

Tauqeer Ahmed

Tauqeer Ahmed (PR Tech Eng) holds a Master’s in Technology in Civil Engineering and is currently the Head of the Engineering Centre of Excellence at the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) Headquarters.

Tauqeer has a long history with SAICE. He served as a Council member from 2019 to 2021 and is a member of the Membership Committee and Marine Division Committee. In 2019 Tauqeer volunteered to champion the SAICE Knowledge Trailblazer, which formed part of the new SAICE Growing Forward campaign.

He has authored numerous articles focusing mainly on maintenance issues and has interviewed various professionals to share their knowledge with the greater SAICE community, and in particular to ensure that new knowledge is constantly made available to members. Moreover, he has made significant efforts to collaborate with sister institutions to bring their knowledge and technological developments into the Knowledge Trailblazer fold.

In 2017 Tauqeer was awarded SAICE’s Technologist of the Year award in recognition of his work done at TNPA’s Port of Ngqura.

Sharon Shunmugam

Sharon Shunmugam (PR Tech Eng, FSAICE, PMP) is an adept and respected professional in the project management and construction management disciplines, having lead projects for well-known clients in both the public and private sectors.

She has been active on a branch level for years, leading the SAICE Durban branch in 2021 and 2022, during which time it was awarded Branch of the Year twice. Under her leadership the Durban branch grew considerably and is now almost 1 700 members strong.

As the Chairperson for SAICE Durban, Sharon led the branch to new heights. When KwaZulu-Natal faced terrible floods in 2022, she coordinated SAICE volunteer efforts in the area, in addition to organising the branch’s community upliftment projects, including two highly successful Winter Warmth drives and two Christmas outreach initiatives. The most recent initiative was a calculator drive which saw 350 scientific calculators distributed throughout South Africa.

Sharon is a Fellow of SAICE and a member of the SAICE Executive Board. She was also recently appointed to serve as the Vice President of the SACPCMP.