Top 25 Newsmakers

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Lorna Kenna’s day job is helping Americans return to the moon. As vice president and general manager of the Jacobs Space Operations Group at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., she leads the team working past logistical and COVID-19-related challenges to assemble the Artemis 1 rocket in the space agency’s vehicle assembly building for a scheduled launch in March.

Beauty and beastly strength: Concrete made by Fort Miller Group, which precast the giant concrete flowerpot-like structures for Manhattan’s Little Island park on the Hudson River, boasts this traditionally unlikely combination.

Matthew Hallowell isn’t afraid to disrupt the established thinking in construction safety measurement.

Freed from the limitations and demands of construction design work, engineering professors can champion causes in the industry’s best interest.

Teamwork and trust would prove as critical as technical skill and logistical resourcefulness to repair the crack traced to a weld defect on the Hernando de Soto Bridge between Tennessee and Arkansas in just three months.

Growing up, Brian Earle’s family moved every couple of years. He was born in Heidelberg, Germany; relocated several times to U.S. cities; and attended high school in Seoul, where he lived within artillery range of the North Korean border. 

Last year marked two milestones for forensic structural engineer Donald O. Dusenberry. He retired from Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Inc. after 45 years and he celebrated the completion of the draft of the nation’s first building standard on disproportionate collapse mitigation. 

For third generation carpenter Russ Brotnov and his tight-knit Carpentry Plus Inc. team, it’s long been a family affair.

The U.S. Army’s senior research scientist for environmental science, believes that engineering is on the brink of a new paradigm, with more federal funds and industry acceptance reflecting his energy and passion.

Many have tried to adapt the exacting precision and  consistency of factory-floor robots to construction sites and work zones, but there are always compromises and problems.