Glendale man, ‘public servant’ honored by Cal State L.A.
A civil engineer and Glendale resident with nearly 30 years of experience designing pipes and conduits that deliver water to Southern California residents was recently given Cal State Los Angeles’ 2015 “Outstanding Lecturer” award.
John Shamma has taught undergraduate engineering classes at the school since 1999. He was recognized with the lecturer award on Sept. 21.
“I view myself as a public servant. The type of work I do is what keeps Southern California going. I contribute a very, very small piece to it,” he said. “As far as teaching, I mainly focus taking real-life engineering problems and teaching the students how to apply the fundamental engineering principles to them so they can come up to a practical solution. Hopefully, along the way, we can develop them as good engineers.”
At the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Shamma is a facility planning team manager, keeping an eye on the water system’s infrastructure and its vulnerabilities, and anticipating for emergencies such as earthquakes.
With the impact of the severe drought, he said, employees are taking on more work than before as the district provides water to 19 million people in several counties, including Ventura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego.
“Certainly the drought has increased the amount of work we do. Now we’re making the system work in ways that it’s never worked before. We’re moving water where there is no water now. We’re always doing engineering to make the system more flexible,” he said.
Over the years, students’ interest in civil engineering ebbs and flows, but lately, Shamma has seen students’ interest in the field grow, which he suspects could be due to the region’s ongoing development and aging infrastructure.
“It’s also great to see these young people come through the program. They go out and get jobs and they’re successful. I cannot tell you how rewarding that is. Really, that is the most important part of what I do,” he said.