FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize

About the FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize

From 2007-2026, the FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize was awarded annually to an outstanding emerging social change activist in California.  The award of $2,500 honored a person whose work transforms the existing social landscape - often in subtle and previously unappreciated ways - and serves as a bridge between the academy and the community.  Awardees were selected based on their work to build the capacity of community-based organizations and social movements to confront pressing issues by applying their academic expertise. Simultaneously, awardees enriched academic scholarship by sharing the insights and knowledge produced from community engagement with the broader academic community.  The award was not limited to students or scholars, but honorees' work reflects a commitment to strengthening ties between the academy and the community. 

Read about past FOUNDATIONS FOR CHANGE: Thomas I. Yamashita Prize winners
photo of Sepehr Vakil, 2015 Yamashita Prize recipient, with a group of people

Sepehr Vakil, second from left, was awarded the Yamashita Prize in 2015

photo of Thomas Yamashita

Thomas Yamashita

About Thomas I. Yamashita

Thomas Isao Yamashita was an undergraduate student in civil engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and a member of the class of 1942. He was one of the first Asian Americans elected to two of the University of California’s honor societies—Winged Helmet and the Order of the Golden Bear. The internment of Americans of Japanese descent on the West Coast of the United States in 1942 made it impossible for him to graduate from Berkeley. He eventually received his engineering degree from the University of Nebraska. Even so, Tom supported and cherished the University of California at Berkeley and was a life member of the Alumni Association.

As a civil engineer, Tom spent the majority of his career in Hong Kong. His work did not involve building the structures that typify its landscape. His work was unseen, focusing on foundations, on solving the complex engineering problems that enable steel and glass towers to be built. His work made possible the transportation corridors that allowed the city to become a regional economic hub. Through his leadership, Tom developed new construction techniques that altered the practice of building. His work changed the city’s landscape. In this spirit of engineering the foundations of change, this award supported transformative work that alters the social landscape, often in subtle and previously unappreciated ways.