2014 Issue

12 CONGRATULATIONS Nominees for UEC’s 2014 Engineer of the Year Award BRET CHRISTIANSEN Nominee of ASPE Bret has 23 years of experience in the Mechanical Engineering field designing various systems that include Indirect, Direct, Evaporative Cooling (IDEC), Chilled Beams, Ground Source heating and cooling, Steam heating, Central Chilled Water Systems, and Energy Recovery. His projects include edu- cation, manufacturing, medical, municipal and clean rooms. LARRY GILSON Nominee of AWWA Larry is the owner of Gilson Engineering, Inc. and has served as City Engineer for Bluffdale, Clearfield, Draper City, Hooper, Riverdale, Riverton, Saratoga Springs, South Weber, Sunset and West Point. He has also served as District Engineer for south Valley Sewer District and as project engineer for over 100 public works projects. KENT D. LAYTON Nominee of IEEE Kent Layton is currently working as a Senior Principal Design Engineer at ON Semicon- ductor. He has served as Project Leader, Analog Design Lead, Design Engineer, System Architect, and more. He has shown tremendous aptitude in his area of expertise of semiconductor design. His colleagues consider him a subject matter expert in inte- grated circuit design. JOHN R. NJORD, P.E., M. ASCE Nominee of ASCE John served as the Executive Director of UDOT for an unprecedented 12 years, leading the Department through a period of innovation and achievement. At the time of his retirement, he was the longest serving DOT CEO in the United States, having served under four consecutive Utah governors. John is nationally known for his leadership in accelerated bridge construc- tion, innovative contracting, and deliver- ing large, complex projects like the I-15 CORE project, Mountain View Corridor, and Legacy Highway projects. ROBERTA PERRY-SCHLICHER, P.E. Nominee of SAME Roberta has over 30 years’ experience consulting to federal government, munici- palities, and commercial industry. Through professional society engagement, she has furthered the development of budding engineers and contributed to the profes- sionalism and integrity of our industry. KIMBERLEY ROBINSON, P.E., SE Nominee of SEAU Kimberley is the Chief Engineer for Star Seismic, supervising their engineering de- partment. During her time with Star Seismic she has been involved with hundreds of structural projects, including hospitals, high rise structures, and complicated industrial projects. MARK TAYLOR, P.E., PTOE Nominee of ITE Mark works for the UDOT Traffic Operations Center and is considered an expert in Traffic Signal Operations and Maintenance with 13 years’ experience. Some of Mark’s career highlights have been his role with signal op- erations during the 2002 Winter Olympics; reorganizing traffic signal operations and maintenance into a more efficient team and his involvement in creating and adapting real-time traffic signal performance metrics that are available to everybody who has a desire to use them. JAMES THACHER, PH.D Nominee of AIAA Dr. Thacher completed 42 years in engi- neering and 40 years in solid rockets. His work included technical, management, and proposal preparation tasks. He managed an Engineering Design and Analysis Group of more than 100 engineers, where he oversaw the hiring and training of over 50 new engi- neers. Jim was Technical Volume Proposal Manager for Minuteman Missile, Titan IV Solid Rocket Motor Upgrade, and Alternate Space Shuttle. He exercised oversight over R&D Projects at several sites. Recently Jim received a 50-year service award from AIAA. While Section Chair (2003-2004), the AIAA Utah Section received several national awards. VICTOR WILLES Nominee of AHSRAE Victor has been very instrumental in designing mechanical HVAC and plumb- ing systems in buildings from California to Georgia. Always at the forefront of technology, Victor has found ways to make hydronic and air systems both reliable and efficient at the lowest first cost. He has been a member of ASHRAE for many years and served through the ranks as various commit- tee heads as well as a Governor at Large for the Utah Chapter of ASHRAE.