University of Houston engineering alumni Peter Borsack and LeAnne Napolillo are named 2002 Young Engineers of the Year.
Peter Borsack (1998 BSCE) was recognized by the Society of American Military Engineers-Houston Post as their Young Engineer of the Year. He has been a member since 1997 and is currently serving as chair of the Readiness Committee.
He received a bachelor of arts degree in history from Texas A&M University in 1990. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and graduated from Engineers Officers Basic course, Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri in 1991. After serving in the U.S. Army Reserves in Oklahoma, a near fatal car accident forced him to move back to Houston in 1993. Several months later, while in the U.S. Army Individual Ready Reserves, he began studying for a bachelor of science degree in civil eningeering at UH.
In 1997, he began an internship with Cobb, Fendley & Associates. While finishing his degree in 1998, Peter coordinated a utility mapping project for UH and worked on several utility design projects for CFA clients.
From 1999-2001, Peter worked in the Infrastructure and Transportation departments at Walter P. Moore & Associates. In early 2001, he became actively involved in the S.A.M.E. Readiness Committee publishing the FAST START PLAN for the Houston and Galveston areas. He has also coordinated preparations for the Annual Readiness Committee Banquet and has chaired several meetings pertaining to disaster response and recovery with fellow committee members and key staff at the Harris County Office of Emergency Management.
In 2001, Peter returned to Cobb, Fendley & Associates and has worked in the utility design and subsurface utility engineering. He has volunteered for activities such as MATHCOUNTS, Canstruction and the UH Engineering Golf Tournament. The events of Sept. 11 have challenged him to continue to focus on ways of incorporating comprehensive force protection into the FAST START PLAN while maintaining contact with the U.S. Army Reserves.
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LeAnne Napolillo, PE (1999 MIE) was recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers-Houston Branch (ASCE) as their Young Engineer of the Year. She has been an active member of ASCE since her undergraduate studies, during which time she served as ASCE student chapter President, participated in concrete canoe and received the Outstanding Senior in Civil Engineering Award.
Upon graduation with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Kansas State University in 1994, she joined HNTB Corporation as a highway design engineer. LeAnne received her masters of industrial engineering/engineering management degree from UH in 1999.
She has served the Houston Branch of ASCE as Young Member committee chair, treasurer, branch director and has planned several technical and professional development seminars. Nationally, she is the Zone III representative to the Committee on Younger Members (CYM) and is currently chairing the committee.
In her role as CYM representative, she planned the 11th annual Young Member Leadership Symposium, which was held at the 2001 ASCE Annual Conference in Houston in October. Despite recent events, the Symposium had a record-breaking attendance of 90 attendees from all over the nation. LeAnne also participated on the planning, local host and sponsorship committees for the 2001 Conference. She is currently planning the Symposium for the 2002 Annual Conference, ASCE's 150th Anniversary Celebration in Washington, D.C. in November.
Along with her involvement in ASCE, LeAnne is also a member of the Texas Institute of Transportation Engineers, and is active in the community. She has volunteered for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels, mentor to Thompson Elementary School and spoken at the Spring High School Career Day. She is president of the St. Ignatius Loyola Church's Young Adult Group.
During her tenure at HNTB, LeAnne's experience has included development of preliminary and final roadway design, preparation of plans and estimates, schematic design and corridor studies. She has acted as project engineer for the final design of the SH 146/225, Beltway 8/59 North and Beltway 8/SH 249 interchanges and developed schematics for 72 miles of the US 69 Corridor Study in the Beaumont District. She has also participated as lead engineer in the Houston District I-69 Route Feasibility Study, FM 1960/Kuykendahl Intersection Improvements Study and the Green Ribbon Project Corridor Aesthetics and Landscape Master Plan.
Reprinted from the Houston Business Journal's Engineers Week supplement, Feb. 15-21, 2002.