Dr. Awtar Singh , a renowned consultant and expert witness in the field of geotechnical forensic engineering has been promoting higher education for Pecobians and other people of Indian origin for several years. Born and raised in Lyallpur Pakistan, Singh, a Civil Engineering graduate belongs to Class of 1949 of Punjab Engineering College. After earning his bachelor’s degree Singh was promoted early in his career to be an executive engineer. Dr. Singh has had a profound impact on the process of dispute resolutions, involving earth movement, through introduction of analytical methods and intellectual rigor. Whenever a significant geologically induced landslide occurs in Southern California, more likely than not, the lawyers, property owners and government officials turn to Awtar Singh to unravel the failure mechanisms and mitigation measures. On occasion, even the judges and mediators have called upon him for his technical opinion.
Dr. Singh was in charge of construction for half-million kilowatt hydropower plant for one of the highest concrete dams of that time, Bhakra Dam, and other large-impact engineering projects. He moved to USA in the early 1960’s, and earned his master’s degree in soil mechanics and foundation engineering from CU-Boulder in 1963 and his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1966. He then taught civil engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles until co-founding Lockwood–Singh &Associates in 1972. The firm completed more than 5,000 geotechnical and geological projects before Singh sold the company to Exponent Failure Analysis in 2000. He is now a Consulting Geotechnical Engineer for SGH Consulting Services, Inc. Dr. Singh is an active volunteer and philanthropist. He believes that education is the foundation for success. He donates his time to prepare students at all levels for standardized testing in mathematics. He covers topics such as: ‘How to be friendly with numbers’ and preparation for SAT, GRE, and GMAT tests. He lives a balanced life with equal emphasis on professional activities, community service and interesting hobbies. Singh is selfless when it comes to helping others, a tenacious player on the golf course, a life master in contract bridge, a research scientist in the academic field and a leading consulting engineer.
In memory of his late wife Teji, Dr. Singh established the fully endowed Awtar-Teji Singh Fellowship at University of California at Berkeley. The fellowship supports outstanding students of Civil and Environmental Engineering from PEC who wish to pursue graduate education in related fields. Teji Singh, late wife of Awtar Singh taught young children as a Montessori teacher for more than 20 years. “We both have had a lifelong interest in education and wanted to do something to reflect that, as well as give something back to the schools I attended”, Singh said. Recipients of the one year fellowship are selected on the basis of academic merit in undergraduate studies at PEC and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Dr. Singh is often asked if there is a guarantee that the scholarship winners will go back to India and serve the country. "The world is shrinking so fast that it does not matter to me whether these fellowship students end up working in the United States or India," he says. "What matters is the best talent is rewarded and encouraged." Thanks to Dr. Singh’s generosity, so far eleven students have received the Awtar-Teji Singh fellowship and have graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering.
Awtar and Teji Singh Fellowship Fund in Civil Engineering Purpose:
The purpose of the Awtar and Teji Singh Fellowship Fund in Civil Engineering is to support graduate students studying in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The Fund seeks to enable a qualified student from Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh to pursue graduate-level studies at Berkeley each year. It is the intent of the Awtar and Teji Singh Fellowship Fund in Civil Engineering to cover, at a minimum, tuition and fees for the selected Fellow.
Criteria:
Recipients of the Awtar and Teji Singh Fellowship Fund in Civil Engineering shall be selected strictly on the basis of merit from admitted graduate students in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Fellowship recipients will be graduates of Punjab Engineering College Chandigarh.

Requirements for the Awtar-Teji Singh Fellowship:
• A formal application to University of California at Berkeley for Master of Science (MS) program in Civil Engineering. The various majors available are Structural, Geotechnical, Transportation, Systems Engineering and Engineering Project Management. (http://www.ce.berkeley.edu)
• Current/Old student of Civil Engineering at PEC.
• Standardized tests: GRE and TOEFL.
• Bachelor’s of Civil Engineering degree, preferably with Honors.
•Three letters of recommendation.

Recipients of the Awtar-Teji Singh Fellowship:
Eleven students have so far received the Awtar-Teji Singh fellowship and have graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering:

1. Arvinder Singh (1999)
2. Shruti Malik (2000)
3. Nimrat Bhattal (1999)
4. Pratyush Bhatia (1999)
5. Pooja Jain (2000)
6. Deepansh Kathuria (2002)
7. Aseemita Malhotra (2003)
8. Gaurav Moudgil   (2004)
9. Prapti Mittal (2005)
10. Seetha Poduri (2006)
11. Pradeep Kumar (2007)