B.S. Civil/Structural Engineering, Duke University, 1981
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After graduating from Duke University in 1981 with a B.S. in civil/structural engineering, I
joined MPR. When I graduated, I was planning to work for a few years to figure out what
engineering discipline would be my field for advanced study, especially since my closest friends in
engineering went straight to graduate school. After a few years, however, I found that I was
learning so much in many different areas beyond my undergraduate work, that I no longer had a
desire to go to graduate school and concentrate in one area. The variety of tasks and the
opportunity to work with many different people, including my terrific colleagues at MPR, are two of
the primary reasons I am still at MPR after so many years.
A task I enjoyed recently involved follow-up work on a task MPR had performed a few months
earlier for an electric generating station: design of a welded overlay repair to a cracked pipe.
I had the opportunity to manage the task because one of my colleagues had several commitments that
coincided. When I asked if I could help, he mentioned this task which I volunteered to do. The
willingness of MPR engineers to help each other out is another reason why I'm still here. The
follow-up work involved three analyses: (1) developing a computer model of the piping system to
calculate the stresses in the pipe due to shrinkage of the weld overlay; (2) evaluating the
acceptability of the piping stress according to the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code; and
(3) performing a fatigue evaluation of a postulated flaw (crack) in the weld overlay. A new MPR
engineer (from my alma mater, Duke) was able to perform most of the first task with the help of
another MPR engineer who is experienced with the finite element computer code we selected for this
task. Based on my outlines, we prepared the calculations for the second and third tasks, which
were reviewed by the engineer who had designed the weld overlay and by our senior metallurgist.
I wrote a report on the project that included the three analyses and reviewed it with our client
while I was at their plant starting another task.
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