This first time ever award won by an Oceanside resident

Oceanside resident Jonah Allaben learned that it paid big dividends to be considered “a leading practitioner of energy efficiency in the tri-state area.”

The description has earned Allaben the first-ever Engineer of the Year Award presented by the Long Island chapter of ASHRAE, or American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers. He was presented with the honor at ASHRAE Long Island’s Past Presidents’ Night at Westbury Manor on June 13.

“The Long Island chapter of ASHRAE is pleased to initiate its Engineer of the Year Award by honoring Jonah Allaben, a leading practitioner of energy efficiency in the tri-state area,” Murat Bayramoglu, the group’s president, said.

“At a time when energy efficiency is a crucial priority locally, regionally and nationally, this year’s award-winner underscores the essential role of engineers in achieving the highest standards of energy efficiency.”

The Long Island chapter is dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration, or HVAC-R, industry and providing personal development and networking opportunities for its members at all career levels, ASHRAE officials said.

“I think there’s a really good job of fostering a vibrant community for engineering,” Allaben, an ASHRAE member for 15 years, said. “I think it does a good job of trying to promote engineering and promote advancement within our field.”

The award, which will be presented annually, recognizes an engineer, whether it be mechanical, electrical, plumbing or controls, who is Long Island-based or a Long Island resident and has an outstanding record of exceptional performance or innovation in the HVAC-R industry.

“I was pleasantly surprised,” Allaben said of winning the inaugural award. “Individual words are rare, and in a way, the feeling of individual recognition is not sort of conducive to the whole approach to the industry. It really is a team mindset from your own firm to the fact that you’re on a team with an architect, project owner and a contractor to get something built.

“You don’t think of it as an individual thing, but the nicest part has just been hearing kind words from old friends and co-workers that I haven’t spoken to in a while,” Allaben added. “It was a nice reminder that it is a community, and it’s worth celebrating people when you can.”

Allaben, 38, is a mechanical engineer and a senior associate in energy services at Goldman Copeland Associates, a New York City-based consulting engineering firm, where he has worked for two years. He has 15 years’ experience in managing and designing complex engineering projects.

Originally from Massachusetts, Allaben has lived in Oceanside for 10 years. He graduated from Cornell University and received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering in 2006 and a Master of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering the following year.

After he graduated, he came to Long Island, where his wife grew up and has been living his whole career post-college. Fresh out of college, he worked for seven years at ARUP, the global engineering company headquartered in the United Kingdom, and he then worked at The LiRo Group in Syosset for another seven years.

Since winning his award, Allaben said that it would be a great way to attract interested minds into the engineering field.

“What I would like to encourage out of this is that I think engineering is a great field, and I think it’s a great time to be an engineer,” he said. “There are energy efficiency standards that are coming into play that will really drive a lot of creativity in the engineering world. I think that’s a key goal with the award and the ASHRAE community, trying to remind people there’s opportunity out there and especially for someone coming into high school or college who has a propensity towards problem-solving. If this can help give someone a slight head’s up, I think that would be great.”