Engineer of the Year Nominees.

• Author: Alter, Amos Joe
• Position: Amos Joseph "Joe" Alter

Namoniated by the American Society of Professional Engineers

Amos Joseph "Joe" Alter, longtime Alaskan resident and prominent civil engineer, passed away on October 26, 2000. Alter was a driving force in the American Society of Civil Engineers and American Society of Professional Engineers throughout his many years in Alaska.

Alter was born on August 4, 1916 on Rosebud Farm in Jasper County, Ind. He graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering in 1938. Following this degree, he specialized in public health and environmental issues in his graduate studies and earned a master's degree in public health from the University of Michigan in 1948 and his professional engineering degree from Purdue University in 1949.

Alter and his wife, Catherine, came to Alaska in 1944. He was a commissioned officer with the Public Health Service. For more than 35 years, he worked as a civil engineer, focusing on problems of water supply, waste disposal, environmental conservation and pollution control in an arctic environment. He worked for the U.S. Public Health Service, the Territory of Alaska, the State of Alaska, and as a private consultant. His professional involvement included charter memberships and past presidencies in the Alaska Public Health Association, the Alaska Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the American/Association of the Advancement of Science.

Nationally, Alter served on the National Academy of Sciences Cold Regions Engineering Subcommittee from 1950 to 1965, and as a national director of the American Society of Civil Engineers from 1972 to 1975. He authored numerous articles and monographs for professional journals and conferences, and received awards in recognition of his contributions and service. He was especially pleased to have had a role in virtually eliminating tuberculosis as a daily threat to the lives of the state's citizens.

Jerry L. Brady

Nominated by the Society of Petroleum Engineers

Jerry L. Brady is a senior staff engineer for BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. He is the project manager for the Subsurface Process and Re-Injection Compressor-a small, high-speed compressor powered by a turbo expander that injects gas back into the well eliminating normal emission associated with typical recompression facilities. Brady is also the project manager of a novel new surveillance technique that monitors waterflood movement thousands of feet below ground using surface gravity. This technique provides a time-lapse 4-D view of the water movement in the ground.

Brady graduated with honors from Montana Tech, receiving a degree in petroleum engineering. He has a 20-year career in production engineering, where he has been responsible for the development of several new technologies. These include the development of acid-resistant cement, new horizontal well evaluation techniques and smart well surveillance technologies. Brady holds 12 U.S. patents and more than 25 published professional...