Awards

ITS Minnesota Awards

Each year ITS Minnesota recognizes one individual from the public sector and one individual from the private sector who have made outstanding contributions to the field of ITS.

In 2012 ITS Minnesota formally named the private sector award the “Carlson-Rajkowski Award” in honor of Craig Carlson and Ron Rajkowski, employees of Egan Company who were killed in a tragic work zone accident along I-35W in Burnsville on October 13, 2011. As experienced professionals, Craig and Ron had deep ties to Minnesota’s transportation industry, especially in the design, integration and deployment of ITS. Craig Carlson was an innovative outdoor electrical leader at Egan whose work focused on designing transit signal priority systems, fiber backbone communications, traffic signal optimization and other technologies that provide real-time information to road users. Working closely with Craig, Ron Rajkowski led the field construction and deployment efforts for Egan ITS projects, closely supervising each project to ensure its overall quality and safety. Craig and Ron were both committed to building and maintaining an intelligent, safe Minnesota transportation system. The ITS Minnesota private sector award has been renamed to reflect their professional standards of excellence and continued commitment to Minnesota’s transportation industry and ITS in particular.

Award recipients demonstrate outstanding contributions to advance ITS in Minnesota. Contributions may be demonstrated through exceptional leadership, innovative projects, education and outreach efforts, collaborative partnerships, or support of the ITS Minnesota and Minnesota Guidestar organizations.

Nominations are sought from members at the beginning of each calendar year in conjunction with nominations for the ITS Minnesota board of directors. Award recipients are then recognized at the ITS Minnesota Annual Meeting each spring.