How does one receive an international award which is so rare and more discriminating than the Nobel Prize that it is not given much too often, and only for the truly deserving?

Well, perhaps you got to be the likes and caliber of Brod Cesar Luis De Leon Lim who bagged the 2009 Milton W. Garland Commemorative Refrigeration Award for Project Excellence as so far, the Second Awardee in the award-giving body’s 20 years of bestowing such accolade, and the first Asian and Filipino at that, International Awardee.

We show you the newspaper clipping that details the award, the awardee and the awarding. His citation from the ASHRAE Insights journal reads: The Milton W. Garland Commemorative Refrigeration Award for Project Excellence recognizes the designer and owner of a non-comfort cooling refrigeration application that highlights innovation and/or new technologies. The recipient is Cesar Luis D.L. Lim, PME, Consultant, SPTG/CTG, San Miguel Corp., Manila, Philippines.

Brod Cesar Luis De Leon Lim belongs to the SIGMA CHI Fraternity Batch 33, the first batch admitted to our ranks after the declaration of Martial Law (but also the last batch as the Fraternity hibernated after that). He graduated from the University of San Agustin in 1975 with the degree of BS in Mechanical Engineering, got his Masters in Business Administration from De La Salle University in Manila in 1981 and still pursued and graduated his Major in Refrigeration on Design and Practise at the Northwest Kent College of Technology in England in 1993.

His array of experience as Professional Mechanical Engineer is too lengthy to discuss here. Suffice to say, he performed many times over as Design Engineer, Designer, Associate, Partner, Department Head, Professor/Instructor, Technical Advisory Panel Member, President and Chief Operating Officer, Project/Application Engineer, Project-in-Charge, Planning and Design Engineer, Lecturer, Sales Engineer, and other Engineering Management post there is, in also many a number of corporations and companies he got affiliated with.

His string of other honors and awards as a Professional Mechanical Engineer is coupled with his published write-ups on a variety of topics about his major expertise, his projects in a succession of companies, his leadership among his fellow PSMEs, and his activities and membership in other societies or trade associations.

Below is a downloadable file about the article of the award as published in the ASHRAE Journal, which could be included as a reading material and reference for any of our Mechanical Engineering resident or graduate Brods and Sis. This is actually his winning piece and project.

Filipino bags international refrigeration award

June 21, 2009, The Philippine STAR

Professional mechanical engineer Cesar Luis de Leon Lim will receive the Milton W. Garland Commemorative Refrigeration Award for Project Excellence on June 20 at the Annual American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc. (ASHRAE) meeting in Louisville, Kentucky.

The ASHRAE, founded in 1894, is an international organization that seeks to advance heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration to serve humanity and promote a sustainable world through research, standards writing, publishing and continuing education. The 51,000 members work in the fields of indoor air quality, building design and operation, and environmental control for food processing and industry.

According to Steve Hammerling, technical service engineer, Lim is the second awardee since it started in 1989. The first awardee was from Central Florida.

Lim’s entry was the conversion of the cylindro-conical tanks (fermentation and storage) from ammonia jacket cooling to laser welded cooling panel located at the San Miguel Corp.’s San Fernando Brewery in San Fernando City, Pampanga.

Lim submitted his entry four times before winning the prize. In 2006 it was sent back for revision by the Society. He sent it back in 2007 and again in August 2008, but both times it got lost. He submitted it yet again in October 2008, not expecting anthing anymore.

Lim is consultant to the San Miguel Corp.-Beer Division. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of San Agustin in Iloilo City in 1975, and took his MBA from 1977 to 1981 at De La Salle University in Manila. He was sent by San Miguel to study refrigeration in Northwest Kent College of Technology, Hall Training Center in 1993.