By Braun Intertec | February 19, 2025

To celebrate National Engineers week, we are highlighting several engineers who are making an impact. In honor of this year’s theme, “Design Your Future” we asked them questions about how they’ve fashioned their careers in engineering and life outside of work. 

Can you share a memorable project you have worked on and why it stands out to you? It might not have been the most important, technical, or coolest project I’ve worked on, but it was certainly memorable. During my first co-op at Braun Intertec, I had the opportunity to work on a residential development just down the street from where I grew up. I was involved in everything from the grading to the asphalt testing. The following year, a friend’s family moved into one of the houses within the development. The satisfaction of being directly involved in a project that became a part of my personal life was both fulfilling and exciting.

What advice would you give to aspiring engineers? Work hard, keep an open mind, and don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone.

What is your dream vacation? My dream vacation is Banff, Canada. I am checking this off the list this summer.

Can you share a memorable project you have worked on and why it stands out to you? All the emergency railroad repair projects that I have done for a railroad project in Texas, New Mexico and Arkansas stand out to me as memorable. Especially a slope embankment project, in which we fixed an eroded slope 10 feet away from a mainline track. This was memorable because of the importance of getting the project completed within a very tight timeframe of six weeks, and I was the construction manager/field engineer. Fortunately for everyone involved, the project completed under budget and before the deadline.

How do you stay current with the latest advancements and technologies in your field? I stay up to date on the latest advancements by attending seminars and reading up on updated standards, various websites and internet forums. We are lucky to have advanced social media in this day and age, which helps in keeping up with anything that we would like on the palm of our hand.

What are your hobbies outside of work? Outside of work I enjoy playing guitar and bass, watching and playing soccer, hiking and camping.

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and how did you choose your specific field? In high school, I took an AP environmental science class just to get college credit. I learned that I had a passion for the natural world through this class, which led me to pursue an environmental engineering major in college. After taking materials and soils science classes, I found that geotechnical engineering was a career where I can use engineering tools and nerdy skills!

What are your hobbies outside of work? I am a big cyclist and cross-country skier. After work, you’ll catch me training and racing on gravel roads and trails around Minnesota and the greater Midwest. My wife and I are currently training for an Ironman. We take our muttski (husky-mix) Dietrich on as many outdoor quests as possible. When we must stay inside, we watch the Iowa Hawkeyes and cook!

What is your dream vacation? My dream vacation would be to spend a month in the French Alps in the summer. I would bike all day and watch the Tour De France for a week, then head to the high mountains to ski.

What advice would you give to aspiring engineers? My advice to aspiring engineers is to stay curious. Ask as many questions as you can and always try to look at problems from different angles. If you can be excited about the subject matter, getting started in the field gets a whole lot easier.

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and how did you choose your specific field? I decided to pursue engineering because I come from a family with many engineers and have always been around their work. It has always excited me, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. I chose my current field because it is a great intersection between my interests in earth sciences and the easiest way to positively impact the communities around me.

What is your dream vacation? My dream vacation right now would be a long backpacking trip through Patagonia or a trip up Aconcagua in Argentina.

What inspired you to pursue a career in engineering and how did you choose your specific field? I was always fascinated by buildings and understanding how they were built. I played with Legos, created roads out of my books for my micro-machines to drive on and would take apart my toys so that I could put them back together. I also always loved and still do love to organize things. I was born to be an engineer. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school that I discovered the things I was interested in could be summed up in one degree, which was civil engineering. Neither of my parents or grandparents were engineers but I knew it was the right fit for me. STEM classes were challenging yet interesting to me.

How do you stay current with the latest advancements and technologies in your field? I am involved in the industry organization International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) on both the local and national level. Going to ICRI’s technical presentations and being able to attend the national conferences keeps me up to date.

Where did you go to school? I went to school at Michigan Technological University. Go Huskies! Lucky for me, I picked the perfect match in schools and the rest is history.