The 2021 Engineer of the Year Winners: The cream of Alaska's engineering crop.

• Position: ENGINEERING

Engineers Week is a nationwide event founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951; the goal of the weeklong focus on engineering is to ensure a "diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers."

The Alaska engineering community works toward this goal, in part, by recognizing local engineering professionals and projects that demonstrate the best that engineering can be. Below are brief descriptions of the deserving winners in Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Fairbanks

In Fairbanks, three engineers are honored for their accomplishments: Engineer of the Year, Young Engineer of the Year (35 years of age or younger), and Student Engineer of the Year.

Engineer of the Year: Dr. Dan White is the UAF chancellor, a role he has fulfilled for five years, but he joined the faculty at UAF in 1995 as a professor of civil and environmental engineering. White has a bachelor's degree in physics from Colorado College and a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Washington University, as well as a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Notre Dame.

According to nominator Jeff Putnam, "As an engineer, he represents our industry at a high level within Alaska and draws attention to the extraordinary capabilities that engineers have." Over the course of his career, White has contributed more than fifty journal articles on professional and engineering related topics, such as the effect of climate change on water supply and quality.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, White has invested heavily in the Fairbanks community, currently serving on boards for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, Great Northwest Athletics Conference, Alaska Sea Life Center, Fairbanks Economic Development Corporation, Cold Climate Housing Research Center, Greater Fairbanks Chamber of Commerce, and the UAF Foundation; in the past he served on boards for the Monroe Foundation, Catholic Schools of Fairbanks, Rotary International-Fairbanks Downtown Club, American Water Works Association, and the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center, among others.

Young Engineer of the Year: Emily Winfield is the lead mechanical engineer for Design Alaska, which she joined in 2014. She was promoted in 2019 to lead the company's mechanical engineering department, managing multi-discipline projects for the entire organization, an advancement that...