The largest chunk of construction in the $14.6-billion ring of storm-surge defenses built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers around post-Katrina New Orleans is a $1-billion concrete wall across a marshy bay on the eastern flank of the city.

Mitchell Collins, chief surveyor with Alberici Constructors, St. Louis, helped take laser scanning and precision fabrication and concrete placement to new heights in 2012 on the Seabrook Floodgate Complex for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. C

The daughter of a bridge engineer in Iowa, Avery Bang spent a lot of her childhood accompanying her father on bridge inspections—"even on holidays," she recalls. Now, Bang builds bridges in developing countries around the world.Bang's globe-trotting tendencies started in college, where she earned a civil engineering degree from the University of Iowa. 

In a corner of Appalachia used to visits from bureaucrats and other would-be do-gooders, it's not hard to understand why, a decade ago, the people of Tennessee's Coal Creek region were suspicious of geotechnical engineer Barry Thacker's offer to clean up their mine waste-tainted waterways.

 Dean C. Allen, CEO of Seattle-based mechanical contractor McKinstry, doesn't want to hear that job candidates don't need to be good at math or that science isn't for everyone.

John Armitt had run major contractors, pioneered the U.K.'s first high-speed-rail system and steered the national railroad infrastructure company out of bankruptcy when a headhunter tempted him to be chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, charged with building all infrastructure and facilities for London's 2012 Olympic

Charlie Bacon knows about workplace hazards. His grandfather lost eight fingers to metal shears on his first day on a new job.

Last year, when driving his motor coach about 20,000 miles to most of engineer Professional Service Industries' roughly 100 offices, the big danger Randy Larson faced wasn't the driving conditions.