AREMA extends deadline for Watford Fellowship

The American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) Educational Foundation has extended the application deadline for its “Watford Fellowship” early-career, professional development initiative until April 15, 2016.

The program has been created in cooperation with the US Committee to the Watford Group of International Railway Designers to provide a unique learning opportunity for an aspiring railway employee to gain international perspective of railroad design and operations. The goals of this initiative are twofold: to broaden professional horizons of aspiring railroaders while enabling them to carry the AREMA brand internationally and, to add new members to the US Watford Committee that can carry on the tradition of Watford Conference participation and the educational benefits that accrue.

The Fellowship will consist of two paid registrations to the 2016 Watford Conference in the Scandinavian region of Europe. The four-day conference, targeted for late October, includes presentations by the attendees in all aspects of railway planning and design with an emphasis on buildings, bridge and tunnel structures, and corporate identity. The aim of the Watford Conference is to encourage the interchange of ideas across national boundaries and to develop and maintain the highest standards of coordinated design for railway-associated schemes.

“Being able to attend the Watford Conference is a unique privilege,” said Mike Zucker, PE, Program Manager at Union Pacific and 2014 Watford Fellow. “It provides an opportunity to learn from other railway professionals from around the world how they handle various situations in railroad design. Being selected provided me a broader insight into how and why the movement of people, along with the arrangement of a project site can increase its usability.”

Created in 1963 by British Railways, The Watford Group encourages the exchange of ideas and promotes design excellence among its operating regions. It is one of the very few global organizations that integrate all aspects of rail transportation under the umbrella of “good design is good business.”

For more information on The Watford Fellowship, educational benefits and how to apply for this opportunity, visit www.aremafoundation.org. Deadline for application is April 15, 2016.