The new face of Alaska engineering.

• Author: Neimeyer, Joel

In all corners of the Last Frontier, you see the mastery of Alaska's engineers: airports in big cities and remote villages; paved highways and dirt roads; big commercial buildings and small housing units; electrical powerlines; oil pipelines; boat harbors -- the list goes on and on.

Statistics from the Alaska Career Information System reveal that Alaska has more than 4,000 engineering professionals. More than 2,000 work as civil engineers -- the specialists who "plan, design, and supervise the construction of roads, railroads, airports, bridges, harbors, dams, pipelines, water systems," etc. Other large categories of engineering professionals employed in the state include petroleum, electrical and mechanical engineers. An additional 200 or more Alaskans work as aerospace, chemical, industrial and mining engineers.

Engineering in the Far North is complex and competitive, as you'll find documented in the stories of the three engineers on pages 27-35. For more information on the diversity of the engineering industry in Alaska, take a look at our Engineers Week Supplement, which starts on Pg. 37.

Here at Alaska Business Monthly, we salute the engineering professionals who've made Alaska the dynamic state it is today -- and wish them all success in building the Alaska of tomorrow.

Revitalizing Rural Alaska

Turn on your tap for a clean drink of water. If your child be comes ill or injured, buzz him down to the nearest doctor or hospital.

Devoted engineering professionals have made tasks like this routine and worry-free for city folk. As a result, most urban Alaskans have become distanced from health and sanitation issues which still plague their rural neighbors. But Bush Alaskans still wait for the day when new answers and new technologies will bring a more modern lifestyle to their homes and villages.

Fortunately, there is an underappreciated group -- also known as "the other guys" -- that is successfully tackling many of Bush Alaska's engineering challenges. One of the innovative minds that specializes in this type of work is Joel Neimeyer, 35, district engineer for Western construction, of the Office of Environmental Health and Engineering (OEH&E), a division of the Indian Health Service (IHS) within the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Neimeyer is in charge of IHS projects, mainly in sanitation and health care facility design and construction, in central and western Alaska.

Although his education is fairly common -- Neimeyer has a...