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While many graduates use their degrees in a range of engineering fields, others apply their skills to careers as authors, athletes, attorneys, CEOs, chefs, doctors, entrepreneurs, politicians, professors, musicians and military leaders.

Aerospace

Ball Aerospace: Jeff Osterkamp (MS EngMgmt ’97) was named vice president of mission assurance in 2016.
Lockheed Martin: Lockheed’s numerous CU graduates include systems engineering director Steve Jolly (AeroEngr PhD ’92). Jolly’s projects have included spacecraft design and development for numerous missions including Mars 98, Mars Odyssey, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and entry, descent, and landing of the Orion capsule.
NASA: Astronaut Steve Swanson (EngrPhys ’83) served as a crew member on the International Space Station for a six-month stint in 2014. He’s among 19 astronauts with affiliations to CU Boulder, while dozens more have worked in other roles with NASA.
SpaceX: David Goldstein (AeroEngr PhD ’00) was named director of government missions for SpaceX in 2016.
Virgin Galactic: Keith Colmer (MS AeroEngr ’96, MS Telecom ’01) was the first astronaut pilot to join Virgin Galactic’s commercial spaceflight team in 2011.

Design & Construction

Kiewit: Justin Guevara (CivEngr ’08) spent nearly four years working on the Port Mann Bridge project in British Columbia, one of the world’s widest bridges, as part of Kiewit Corporation.
Gould Construction: Mark Gould (CivEngr ’81, MS ’82) is president and CEO of Gould Construction, a family-owned operation in Glenwood Springs that works on bridges, commercial projects, land development and more. During a project near Snowmass Village, Gould’s crews accidentally unearthed one of the most important fossil discoveries in Colorado history.
Bridges to Prosperity: Avery Bang (MS CivEngr ’09) is CEO of Bridges to Prosperity, a nonprofit that builds bridges in rural communities to provide access to essential services. The organization has built more than 170 bridges in 17 countries.
Group14: Sue Reilly (MechEngr ’84) founded Group14, a consulting firm that improves the energy and resource efficiency of buildings. Based in Denver, the company advises on sustainable design and environmentally appropriate technologies and conducts building inspections and energy audits.

Energy & Environment

Saudi Basic Indu stries Corporation: Mohamed Al-Mady (ChemEngr ’73, HonDocSci ’12) rose to become vice chairman and CEO of the Saudi Arabian petrochemical giant SABIC after being involved since its inception in 1976. He was selected to lead Saudi Arabia’s Military Industries Corp. in 2015.
BASF: Since 2007, Mike McAtee (ChemEngr ’84) has served as BASF’s senior vice president of engineering and maintenance for North America, a position that allows him to oversee more than 100 facilities for the chemical company. He’s been with the company for more than 30 years.
Abengoa Solar: After graduation, engineers Hannah Cassard (EnvEngr '10) and Tyler Silverman (ChemEngr '08) accepted positions in the R&D department of Abengoa Solar in Seville, Spain, where they designed and developed new power tower projects for concentrating solar power. Both did internships in Seville as students and were recipients of CU's International Engineering Certificate.

Higher Education

CU Boulder: Keith Molenaar (ArchEngr ’90, MS CivEngr ’95, PhD ’97), associate dean for graduate programs, received three degrees from CU Boulder and joined the faculty in 1999. He’s one of numerous Forever Buffs to join the faculty and administration.
University of Oklahoma: Michael Detamore (ChemEngr ’00) was named founding director of the new Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma in 2016.
Rockefeller University: Seth Darst (ChemEngr ’82) is head of the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics at The Rockefeller University in New York, the country’s first institution devoted exclusively to biomedical research. In 2008, Darst was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Law

Greenberg Traurig: Amy Kramer (ChemEngr ’06, JD ’09), practices patent and trademark law as an associate with Greenberg Traurig, an international law firm with more than 1,900 attorneys in 38 offices worldwide.
Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati: Vern Norviel (ChemEngr ’81) is a partner with the Palo Alto law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where he leads the patents and innovation counseling practice.
Shay Glenn: Doug Limbach (MechEngr ’84) is a partner at Shay Glenn in San Mateo, Calif., where he counsels technology companies and investors, primarily in the medical device industry.

Medical & Health Care

GE Healthcare: Lam Pham (CompSci ’02) is a project manager at GE Healthcare in Paris, France.
Amgen: Arun Tholudur (ChemEngr PhD ’98) joined the team at Amgen in 2006, where he leads staff members in commercializing biopharmaceutical products.
JustRight Surgical: Jenifer Kennedy is a co-founder and director of research at Boulder’s JustRight Surgical, which develops precision surgical technologies for general surgery.

Military & Defense

Raytheon: James Wade (AeroEngr PhD ’91) was named vice president of corporate mission assurance at Raytheon in 2010 and also serves on the college’s Engineering Advisory Council.
Northrop Grumman Corporation: Suzanna Diener (AeroEngr PhD ’02) works as an engineering manager for Northrop Grumman and has served as a mentor for senior design teams at CU Boulder.
U.S. Army: Greg Doubek (MS Telecom ’01) is a colonel in the U.S. Army and spent a year in Kuwait as director of the South West Asia Theater Network Operations and Security Center.

Nontraditional Careers

Footwear: Clark Matis (MechEngr ’70) teamed up with Randy Merrell and John Schweizer in 1980 to form Merrell Boot Company, where he provided the production management knowledge and marketing savvy that helped grow the company to the worldwide footwear brand it is today.
Culinary: Anthony Pigliacampo (MechEngr ’02) worked as a mechanical engineer for several years before cofounding Modern Market, a fast-casual restaurant chain that focuses on healthy, tasty meals with simple ingredients. The chain now has more than 20 locations.
Brewing: Yazan Karadsheh (ElEngr ’06) launched the first microbrewery in Jordan called Carakale, named after a mountain cat indigenous to the country.
Mint: Daniel Carr (MechEngr ’82) designed the New York and Rhode Island state quarters in 1999 for the U.S. Mint. He also does his own designs, sculpting, and engraving work for coins, tokens, and medals through his business, Moonlight Mint.

Public Service

Peace Corps: After graduation, Ben Switzer (ChemEngr ’12) spent a year teaching and coaching at a school in Kenya through the Peace Corps.
Municipal service: Rachel Friedman (CivEngr ’99) was the first staff engineer hired by the town of Buena Vista, Colo., where she served from 2009-2012.
Thailand government: Chakkrit Chandrema (MechEngr ’84) served as deputy chief of staff for the Ministry of Defense in Bangkok, Thailand.
United Nations: Henry LeRoy Miller (CivEngr ’92, PhD ’96) served on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize along with Al Gore.

Research

NREL: In 2014, Pete Sheldon (MS ElecEngr ’86) became director of research operations for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Materials and Chemical Science and Technology directorate after many years with the national lab.
NIST: Tara Lovestead (ChemEngr PhD ’04) works as a research chemist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and won a national PECASE Award for her work in 2016.
NOAA: JoAnn Joselyn (ApMath ’65, AstroGeoPhys ’78) worked as a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Environment Center for many years before being named the first female secretary general of the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, a world organization that studies the Earth and its space environment.
NEON: Jim Arnow (MS ApMath ’97) works as an engineer at the National Ecological Observatory Network, an NSF-funded project collecting 30 years of ecological data to disseminate freely to the public.
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory: Jim Hansen (AeroEngr ’92, MS ’93), a former Buffs football captain and Rhodes scholar, works at the Naval Research Laboratory in California, where he uses predictive modeling techniques to combat pirate activity off the coast of Somalia.

Technology

TiVo: Jim Barton (ElecEngr ’80, MS CompSci ’82) cofounded TiVo, the original DVR system that allowed viewers to watch television programs on their own schedules.
SparkFun Electronics: Nathan Seidle (ElecEngr ’04) launched his business as a junior in college. By the time he graduated a year later, the company had grown enough to support his full-time efforts. The Niwot-based online store sells circuit boards, cables, robotics and devices to make electronics projects possible.
MoveWith: Former Apple executive Holly Shelton (MechEngr ’03) cofounded the digital fitness platform MoveWith, which helps fitness enthusiasts discover and book classes with instructors in their communities.
HotelTonight: Chris Bailey (CompSci ’93) is the cofounder and chief architect of HotelTonight, a mobile travel app that helps users find last-minute discounted accommodations.

Transportation

Tesla: Katie Noble (ElEngr '06) has been with Tesla for more than five years. She managed and grew a team of system integration engineers focused on powertrain and body controls and now works remotely from Colorado as a staff product support engineer. Katie has worked on nearly every vehicle program at Tesla.
Toyota: Before his retirement, Bill Reinert (MS CivEngr ’81) worked as national manager of advanced technology for Toyota. He coordinated the automaker’s development and marketing activities for alternative-fueled vehicles and helped lead the product planning team for the second generation Prius.
Uber: Jake Charland (CompSci’14), a software engineer, works with some of the best minds in the field of autonomous vehicles with Uber's Advanced Technology Group in Pittsburgh. He previously worked on Uber Maps in Louisville, Colo.
Glosten: After crossing the Pacific Ocean on a 110-foot schooner, Andrew Young (MechEngr ’07) remained in the marine industry building luxury yachts with Delta Marine and as an engineer with Glosten, a Seattle-based marine design firm.

Alumni Spotlight

Kent with his camera by a lake with fall trees

Engineer-turned-photographer finds ‘Stillness’ in quarantine

Kent Burkhardsmeier (ArchEngr’84) did something many intended but few have accomplished during the COVID-19 quarantine: He published a book. Read more

Duane Chesley at Engineering Scholarship Dinner 2012

Honoring Duane Chesley as students receive gift of education

Duane Chesley (MechEngr’58) valued education because of how it impacted his life, taking him from humble beginnings on a farm in Nebraska to full colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves. At CU Boulder, he endowed a scholarship and established an earn-learn apprenticeship to support mechanical engineering students. Read more

Orbiting the future - aerospace alumnus honored for contributions to industry

Roger McNamara (MAeroEngr’86, PhD’95) has built a career advancing the forefront of aerospace technology and... Read more

Welcome, CU Engineering Buffs

Alumni

Upcoming Events

Alumni Spotlight

Engineer-turned-photographer finds ‘Stillness’ in quarantine

Honoring Duane Chesley as students receive gift of education

Orbiting the future - aerospace alumnus honored for contributions to industry

Departments

Programs

Affiliates & Partners

Search

Welcome, CU Engineering Buffs

Alumni

Upcoming Events

Alumni Spotlight

Engineer-turned-photographer finds ‘Stillness’ in quarantine

Honoring Duane Chesley as students receive gift of education

Orbiting the future - aerospace alumnus honored for contributions to industry

Departments

Programs

Affiliates & Partners