Alumni
VITA
Scott Sheffer (BS-CEE/EPP
1993)
Viva Las Vegas! It was a
great assignment in a great location to start my career and life after
college. After graduating in 1993, I was a newly commissioned 2nd Lieutenant
in the Air Force stationed at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, Nevada. I was responsible
for design and construction for an elite rapid deployment, heavy construction
unit. During my three years there, I traveled the western US, Japan,
Korea, Guatemala and Haiti evaluating, designing and constructing runways,
roads, schools, medical and storage facilities and water wells. With
all the exotic locales, the best trip was to Dayton, Ohio in 1994: I
met my future wife Julie at the University of Dayton.
I moved with the Air Force
to Colorado Springs in 1996 and continued in a more traditional Air
Force engineering role. In addition to polishing my engineering management
skills, Julie and I had a lot of opportunities to sharpen our skiing.
In early 1998, I accepted a position with US West Communications and
we moved 60 miles up the road to Denver.
If changing careers, moving,
and planning a wedding weren't enough, I now had to learn a new specialty:
telecommunications. I got a crash course in the public telephone system,
running an installation and maintenance crew for residential and small
business customers - a great opportunity to use EPP skills to relate
technical issues to our customers.
If there has been a common
thread in my career, it is change. Late in 1998 a friend recruited me
to join the Telecommunications Products Division at Corning Incorporated
in Corning, New York. Corning is the world's leading manufacturer of
optical fiber and I support our worldwide marketing efforts as a Senior
Market Development Engineer. I develop technical and economic models
and presentations for our end users, conduct market research and forecast
demand, and work with our Public Policy Office in Washington, D.C. to
further fiber and telecommunications issues before the FCC and Congress.
Robinson - continued
from pg. 1
goal of the work is to increase
our use of renewable biomass fuels while taking advantage of our large
installed base of coal-fired power plants.
At Carnegie Mellon, Allen
has been working with Spyros Pandis (ChemE/EPP) and Cliff Davidson (CEE/EPP)
to build the Carnegie Mellon Air Pollution group. They are developing
plans for a new air quality laboratory and for a major effort in the
area of fine particulates. Allen is also leading several projects to
better understand sources of air pollution in the Pittsburgh area. This
fall he has been spending time riding up and down the Ohio River measuring
air pollution emissions from river tugs that move barges through the
Pittsburgh region. Another project examines the formation of fine particulate
matter in the plumes of coal-fired power plants. He has also been developing
collaborative ties with the DoE Federal Energy Technology Center in
Pittsburgh and working with V.S. Arunachalam (EPP/MSE/Robotics) on a
project to use biomass gasification for rural electrification in India.
Allen's wife, Kathy Lachenauer,
holds a position as Associate Director for Corporate and Foundation
Relations in the University's Development Office. They are enjoying
exploring the parks around Pittsburgh with their dog Tenaya.
