Rome’s own Lanny S. Thomas was named a recipient of The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. This award recognizes alumni who have provided distinguished contributions to the profession, field, Institute, or society at large. Candidates are highly placed executives and are actively involved in engineering or management, industry, academia, or government.

Annually, the Georgia Tech College of Engineering hosts an Alumni Awards Induction Ceremony for the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni, the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni, and the Engineering Hall of Fame. Each inductee is honored for his/her accomplishments, counsel, service and or support to the college, and personifies the Institute and College's essence.

Thomas received his electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1974. At Tech, he was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity and president of the Ramblin’ Wreck Club. He became a design engineer for commercial and industrial power systems and participated in such notable Atlanta projects as the World Congress Center and the Atlanta Airport. Later, Thomas went to work in the electrical contracting business, eventually becoming an owner, president and now chairman of Allison Smith LLC. Allison Smith is a nearly seventy-year- old electrical contracting company that recently completed over $300 million worth of data center projects for a major computer search engine company. He holds professional engineering licenses in Georgia and Florida with electrical contracting licenses throughout the Southeastern U.S. Thomas has been involved extensively with the National Electrical Contracting Association, a national organization serving over 4000 members, and has held offices both locally and nationally.

The College of Engineering Alumni Awards was created in 1994 and each year, the College of Engineering recognizes, with an induction ceremony, select alumni who have contributed to the profession, advanced in their careers, and enhanced the lives of others both personally and professionally. These outstanding alumni are reviewed by committees within each of the eight schools within the College and formally submitted for selection. This year, 24 individuals were inducted: four in the Council of Outstanding Young Engineering Alumni, 12 in the Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni, seven in the Engineering Hall of Fame, and one recipient for the Dean’s Appreciation Award.

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