2013 Issue

14 2012 UEC Award Winners Engineer of the Year Brent Maxfield, S.E. LDS Church Nominee of SEAU Brent A. Maxfield, Professional Structural Engineer, is currently employed in the Temple Design Services Division of the Special Proj- ects Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During his almost 20 years of employment with the LDS Church, he has been involved with various projects on over 100 different temples. In addition to his work on tem- ples, Brent has been involved in many other projects such as the Conference Center, the Church History Library and Ar- chive, the new Bishops’ Central Storehouse, numerous seis- mic upgrade projects, and standard plan development for meetinghouses, seminaries, institutes, bishops’ storehouses, and Deseret Industries. Brent graduated Magna Cum Laude as the top graduating student in the Civil Engineering De- partment from Brigham Young University in 1983. He then earned a Master of Engineering Management degree from BYU in 1984. Prior to his work with the LDS Church, Brent worked as a structural engineer for James M. Montgomery Consulting Engineers and for Calder Kankainen Consulting Engineers. Brent is an expert in the application of the soft- ware program Mathcad for engineering calculations, and has written two books on the subject. Brent has mentored engineering students in the Capstone program at BYU, is an eagle scout and father of five boys. Educator of the Year Dr. Paul Tikalsky University of Utah Nominee of ASCE Dr. Paul Tikalsky is Chair of the Department of Civil Environmental Engineering, as well as Adjunct Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah. He is a national and international leader in education, research and the civil engi- neering profession and has earned multiple teaching awards. He is cited for the development of high performance con- crete with demanding technical properties, low carbon foot- print and economic viability. He has conducted 25 years of research to improve the life span of exposed structures and performance based specifications for bridges and buildings; publishing more than 70 refereed papers and conducting workshops for public agencies. Dr. Tikalsky has contributed to the profession as an engineering accreditation profession- al, and international research fellow, and as chair of multiple nation technical and educational committees related to con- crete and structural engineering. Fresh Face in Engineering Dallin Pedersen BHB Consulting Engineers Nominee of SEAU Dallin graduated from the University of Utah with a Master of Science in Civil Engineering where he was on the Dean’s list several times. He is a licensed professional engineer and has been a project engineer for BHB Consulting Engi- neers since 2006. Dallin’s spectrum of experience is wide considering his time as an engineer. He has de- signed structures of multiple configurations in steel, concrete, masonry and wood. He has also performed seismic evaluations of existing buildings for several school districts in the state. His experience includes many out of state projects as well as a handful of in- ternational projects, to include: Orem High School, Granger High School, Lyman Li- brary, and University of Utah’s Specialty Care Center at Daybreak, the Emery County Pool Complex, and the Seismic Hazard Analyses for Murray and Alpine School Districts. It is said of Dallin that he strives to gain and achieve the confidence of the client he works for. His spatial intelligence helps him not only visualize how a building is put together, but also how load paths work and transfer forces, from the top of a structure to the bottom. He has received special awards from Wheeler Machinery, Emery County Aquatic, Newpark Town Center, UMC Excellence in Masonry, Excellence in Concrete for Santa Clara town Hall. Mesa Teacher of the Year Blaine Petersen Granite Park Junior High The purpose of MESA or Mathemat- ics, Engineering, Science Achievement is to increase the number of under- served ethnic minority and all female middle, junior, and high school students who pursue course work, advanced study and possible careers in mathematics, engineering, and science areas. Con- gratulations to the 2012 Mesa Teacher of the Year, Blaine Petersen.