September 2009 Virginia Engineers on the Move
 

Anderson & Associates, Inc. would like to welcome Tyson Catlett to their staff as Blacksburg Project Engineer; and Warren L. Simmons, P.E., PLS to their staff as North Carolina VP Survey.
The firm would also like to congratulate Lowell Bowman, LS and Brian Garrett, LS for recently passing the Land Surveyor Exam.

Lewis R. White has been named a Senior Stormwater Quality Specialist in the Norfolk office of Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB). In his new position, Mr. White will lead PB’s efforts in developing the emerging practice known as microbial source tracking, a multi-tiered approach used to determine the bacteria contributions from controllable sources of pollution such as humans, pets, livestock and other domestic animals, and locate the geographic source of the contamination. Mr. White has 40 years of experience in stormwater management and water quality engineering, including state-of-the-art expertise in bacteria sampling and analysis protocols. Prior to joining PB, he served as Project Manager with another consulting firm for Virginia Beach’s annual services contract for drainage, stormwater management and water quality, responsible for tracing fecal bacteria in storm systems, streams and estuaries. He has worked closely with the Hampton Roads Sanitation District laboratory to design sampling and testing protocols in the Hampton Roads region. Mr. White also has broad experience in civil engineering, including planning and design for drainage; roads and highways; site soil evaluations; hydraulic and hydrologic studies; water distribution and sanitary sewer collection; construction management; telecommunications towers; and recreation and park facilities. Mr. White holds a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Virginia Military Institute and is a registered professional engineer in Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland. He is a member of Engineers Without Borders.
Lewis R. White

Clark Nexsen is pleased to announce that:
Carly E. Ross, E.I.T. has earned her Engineer in Training License. Ms. Ross is a Civil EIT who earned a B.S. Degree in Environmental Engineering from Old Dominion University in May 2009. She earned her degree while interning at Clark Nexsen in the Civil Engineering Department; there she learned a great deal of knowledge on both Utilities and Environmental related issues. With a minor in Engineering Management and previous experience from five other engineering and construction based internships; she worked in many disciplines on projects including: water towers, pump stations, and the Six Sigma process;
Joseph H. Bushey, P.E. LEED® AP has passed the LEED certification exam, earning LEED Accreditation from the US Green Building Council (USGBC). Mr. Bushey has over fifteen years of experience in the field of civil engineering. He manages a team of engineers who work on commercial, residential, institutional and government projects. The design involved in these projects includes utility design, roadway design, site grading, stormwater management, erosion control, site plan preparation, and cost estimating. He also assists with land acquisitions and permitting, and has an extensive knowledge of zoning codes and public facility design requirements; and
Kathryn B. Brown, P.E., PTOE was chosen for the Virginia Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (VASITE) Outstanding Young Member for 2009 and was recognized for her contributions to the Profession and the Section. Ms. Brown, Associate and Transportation Engineer at Clark Nexsen, has over 8 years of experience in civil engineering. She currently serves as the chairmen of the Continuing Education committee as well as entertainment chair for the Southern District ITE meeting to be held in Portsmouth in 2010. In addition to the Outstanding Young Member Award, Ms. Brown was also was elected as the VASITE District 5 Representative allowing her to travel to other Southern District meetings representing the Virginia section of ITE.
Carly E. Ross Joseph H. Bushey Kathryn B. Brown

Draper Aden Associates is pleased to announce that Gregory A. Brazeau, P.E., a staff engineer on the Utilities Engineering Team, in the Blacksburg office, has earned his Professional Engineer license. He joined the firm last year and is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering.
Gregory A. Brazeau

The employee owners of Hurt & Proffitt, Inc. would like to honor their CEO, Wiley V. (“Bif”) Johnson, III following his second appointment to the Board for Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers and Landscape Architects by Governor Timothy M. Kaine. Recently, Mr. Johnson was recognized a second time for his vested knowledge of our industry and appointed to the Board. The Board examines licenses and regulates the approximately 35,000 Architects, Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, Certified Interior Designers, and Landscape Architects and related business entities within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Wiley V. Johnson III

Virginia Tech’s Clifton C. Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics Romesh C. Batra received the Engineering Science Medal of the Society of Engineering Science (SES) at the recent meeting of the 2009 Joint American Society of Civil Engineers – American Society of Mechanical Engineers – SES Conference on Mechanics and Materials. Prof. Batra was cited for his “important contributions to studies of adiabatic shear bands. His pioneering research has identified material and geometric parameters that influence the initiation and propagation of material failure at high strain rates with applications to blast loading, projectile penetration, hot forging, high speed machining, grinding, ore crushing, and failure of components subjected to explosive thermo-mechanical loads.” Prof. Batra was the 1996 SES president. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Mechanics, ASEE, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and SES. He is co-founder and editor of the journal Mathematics and Mechanics of Solids, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Computational Methods.
Thomas A. Campbell has been named associate director for special projects with the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech. Dr. Campbell will work with the institute director in all aspects of technical administration for emerging technologies, including leading efforts with national laboratories, developing research projects at the growing Virginia Tech National Capital Region campus, and continuing to build upon relationships with the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute, for which he was recently assistant director. He will also assist the director in developing international programs to support the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science-International; and facilitating emerging research in a broad spectrum of technologies, including for example sustainability research, nanotechnology, bio-nanotechnology, personal health informatics, humanoid hospital, and complex networks. Dr. Campbell will also continue to work with faculty to bring teams of researchers together to respond to solicitations and manage proposal efforts from start to finish, as well as managing projects post-award. Dr. Campbell came to Virginia Tech in August of 2008 from ADA Technologies Inc. in Littleton, Colo., where he served as senior research scientist and nanotechnology program manager. In his three years at ADA Technologies, Dr. Campbell led research efforts supported by various federal sources. He has also worked for five years with Saint-Gobain, a Fortune 100 company, and he has held an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, under which he spent 1.5 years as a postdoctoral researcher in Germany. Dr. Campbell holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Wu Feng, associate professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech, is one of 38 recipients worldwide to receive the NVIDIA Professor Partnership Program Award. Prof. Feng received the award to pursue his research on accelerating the performance of key biological applications on graphics processing units (GPUs). The award consisted of an unrestricted cash gift and equipment donations for research and teaching. Prof. Feng uses GPUs to conduct research on genetic sequence alignment as well as temporal data mining to assist in reverse-engineering the brain. He offers an experimental course on accelerator-based parallel computing. Prof. Feng’s past honors include winning the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) first annual Intellectual Property to Market (IP2M) competition in 2008 with his Ph.D. student Song Huang. They developed software called EcoDaemon that will save data centers millions of dollars in energy costs. Beyond the energy savings, the solution improves the reliability and useful life of a computer in the data center by reducing the core temperature, thus providing an opportunity to significantly lower the cost and environmental impact of data centers and many other computing devices. Prof. Feng is also the co-developer of the Green500 List that serves as a ranking of environmentally friendly, low-energy supercomputers and a complement to the TOP500 List. He was listed on HPCwire’s Top People to Watch List in 2004. Prof. Feng directs Virginia Tech’s Synergy Laboratory. Previous professional stints include The Ohio State University, Purdue University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Orion Multisystems, Vosaic, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, NASA Ames Research Center, and most recently, Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical and Computer engineering and in music (honors) in 1988 and an Master of Science degree in Computer Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University in 1990. He earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1996. He is a senior member of the IEEE.
Virginia Tech College of Engineering Associate Professor Dennis Hong received the SAE International’s Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award at the SAE 2009 World Congress in Detroit. The award, established in 1953, recognizes and honors younger educators who are successfully preparing engineers to meet the challenges that face society. Director of the mechanical engineering department’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa), Hong’s research focuses on robot locomotion and manipulation, autonomous vehicles and mobile robots, and kinematics and mechanisms. Among his honors is the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. He also has won several international awards related to his work in robotic competitions. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Master’s and Doctorate Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.
Romesh C. Batra Thomas A. Campbell Wu Feng Dennis Hong

OWPR, Inc. is pleased to announce that Daniel Gibson has passed the examination required to become a licensed Electrical Engineer.
Daniel Gibson

Hurd & Obenchain, Inc. is pleased to announce their newest staff member, Seth Lehman, E.I.T. Joining the firm’s Richmond office, Mr. Lehman is a graduate of Virginia Tech with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering.
Seth Lehman

Wiley|Wilson is pleased to make the following announcements:
J. Eric James, P.E., LEED® AP was promoted to Mechanical Engineer. Mr. James focuses on mechanical HVAC systems design for renovations and new construction projects for federal, institutional and private sector clients. He holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Southern Polytechnic State University;
Daniel T. Sutton, P.E. was promoted to Civil Engineer. His duties include design for land development and utility projects. Mr. Sutton received a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering from Michigan Technological University; and
Johanan Torres, E.I.T. was promoted to Electrical Engineer-in-Training 1. His duties include power systems analysis and design. Mr. Torres received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.
J. Eric James Daniel T. Sutton Johanan Torres

Hankins and Anderson, Inc. announces that Brian J. Conron has joined the Production Management Department in their Glen Allen office as Project Manager. Mr. Conron was formerly with Jones, Lang LaSalle.

SHW Group has hired two new staff members at its Reston studio.
Doug Gehley, AIA, LEED AP has joined the firm as vice president and new studio leader. With more than 30 years management experience in the architecture/construction industry, Mr. Gehley will serve as the studio’s leader of sustainable design and will also manage the firm’s educational architecture projects. He most recently provided project management of two new high schools in Loudoun County, Virginia. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech.
Burt Jackson, CDT, has joined the firm as project manager. With more than 25 years experience in architecture and construction management, Mr. Jackson is currently working on the Loudoun County Public School Project focusing on construction contract administration and client relations efforts. He is a graduate of Montgomery College in Maryland.
Doug Gehley Burt Jackson

The ACE Mentor Program of Greater Washington, Inc. has appointed Trisha M. Grant, LEED AP as its new Executive Director. Ms. Grant is a native Washingtonian with a strong philanthropic background – having worked with local and national non-profit organizations serving high school and elementary school-age children within the Washington, D.C. area community; and pro-bono efforts involving participation from design and construction industry firms. Her experience with academically targeted, educational programs stems from a prior position with the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College. As the Executive Director, Ms. Grant will be responsible for the overall administration of the Metropolitan Washington region’s ACE Mentor Program, which is guided by a twenty-four member Board of Directors from diverse firms, organizations and associations in the architectural, construction and engineering industries. Ms. Grant holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Anthropology from Dartmouth College and is a LEED Accredited Professional. She further keeps apprised of the architectural and engineering industry through volunteering with the Green Building Institute’s educational programs; and active participation in such networks as the D.C. Building Industry Association; U.S. Green Building Council – National Capital Region Advocacy Committee and Greenbuild; and the American Institute of Architects DC Committee on the Environment.

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