Alumni

Lonnie Mercer is a Senior Geologist at Geosyntec Consultants where he works on projects involving environmental site investigation and remediation, environmental due diligence, and environmental compliance. With broad experience across a variety of industries, Lonnie works with local, national, and multinational clients in the oil and gas, chemical, manufacturing, mining, waste management, hospitality, and government industries

As a Lead Meteorologist, Andrew serves as the shift leader. The National Weather Service keeps watch over the weather 24/7/365, meaning rotating shifts are necessary. On a routine basis, they provide a variety of weather, water, and climate related services. In addition to public forecast information (high temperature, sky cover, snow amounts, etc.), they provide marine forecasts for the Maryland Chesapeake Bay and Tidal Potomac River, tide level forecasts for a number of shoreline locations, aviation forecasts for six airports, and (with the assistance of the Mid Atlantic River Forecast Center) river level forecasts for the Potomac, Shenandoah, and Rappahannock basins. Through their forecasts and observational analysis, they are the official source for weather watch and warning information for the greater Baltimore and Washington region. Andrew and his team also provide weather briefings and other decision support services to government partners so they can prepare and plan to keep the citizens of the area safe during hazardous weather while ensuring responses are proactive instead of reactive. Finally, they collect weather observations from volunteer observers and local airports for inclusion in the national climate database.

After receiving a Ph.D. in 1981 from the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Hwa-Young (Michael) Yeh briefly worked at the Colorado State University as part of its research faculty. He then moved to the east coast to be a National Research Council resident scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. After two years, he decided to broaden his research experience by joining the private industry, and soon started his own company, Caelum Research Corporation, in 1987. The company provided research services to NASA and the Air Force. Several years later, Mike started a separate company, Deus Technologies, applying AI Machine Learning technology on a Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system to detect early stage lung cancer. The research received several NIH SBIR grants, and VC and GE investments. The CAD system went through extensive clinical trials and was approved by the FDA in 2003 as the first of its kind in the world. GE connected CAD with its medical systems, and was sold worldwide as an intelligence medical imaging system. In 2004, Mike divested Deus, and refocused on Caelum's technical services to DOD, NOAA, NASA, and GSA. Currently, Caelum has about 300 employees, providing IT, IM, Data Analytics and Logistics services to Fed agencies. Mike has published more than 50 professional articles on professional journals or conference proceedings and is an inventor or co-inventor of 12 patents. He was elected as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist in Greater Washington, and the Maryland’s distinguished Joseph S. Sciulli Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2000), and the Medical Devices Technology Excellence Award of the Year (2004) from Frost and Sullivan.

Mike Lefler is a Global Product Director for FLSmidth who works with sales, R&D, engineering, and project teams to provide equipment, engineering, and support to gold and silver miners around the world. He believes that with innovative products, great service and constant support customers can maximize their success. Mike has worked for FLSmidth for 7 years in engineering, project management, and product management on dozens of projects around the world. He holds a Metallurgical Engineering degree from the University of Utah and a Masters of Engineering Management degree from Ohio University.

Ronel Kappes is a Process Manager with Newmont’s Processing and Metallurgy Technical Services team, where she uses her technical skills to generate positive business opportunities for early stage exploration and development projects. She has metallurgical development experience in a wide-range of commodities, including gold, copper, lead, zinc and platinum group metals and is passionate about flotation, gold hydrometallurgy and mineral processing in general. Dr. Kappes’ background includes fifteen years as a metallurgical technical expert with Newmont Mining USA Ltd. with international experience through her time working on a variety of projects including operations and projects located in Ghana, Australia, Peru and Indonesia. Dr. Kappes also serves as Newmont USA Ltd’s Executive Sponsor and liaison with the University of Utah.

Alex Moyes is the Manager of Geoscience and Engineering at Dominion Energy Wexpro where he is responsible for upstream activity in Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado. Alex joined Wexpro in 2011 and has since held various positions in operations, development, and new ventures. Prior to joining Wexpro, Alex held positions with the U.S. Geological Survey, Petroleum Systems International, Schlumberger, and Exxon Mobil. Alex holds a BS in geoscience, an MS in Geology, and an MBA, all from the University of Utah. Alex is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Andrew Carey is a Mining Engineer at Rio Tinto Kennecott Utah Copper. He is currently the Director of Drone Operations at Rio Tinto Kennecott. He has worked at Kennecott for 6 years in various roles in Short and Medium Range Mine Planning, Surveying and Mine Operations. Prior to working at Kennecott, Andrew worked in the underground coal industry as well as the mineral processing industry. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, Andrew began his mining career with a bachelor’s degree in Mining Engineering from the University of Utah. Andrew enjoys the sport of kiteboarding as well as attending University of Utah sporting events with his wife Jessica.

Laura Kowal is a Software Tester who verifies data and tests software for the National Weather Service’s (NWS) meteorological software known as AWIPS (Advanced Interactive Processing Service). Laura knows that her work helps meteorologists at the NWS provide accurate and timely forecasts upon which the entire United States depends. The system provides warnings and a network between forecast offices allowing offices to communicate and coordinate their forecasts. Laura’s meteorological expertise allows her the catch software problems and glitches while ensuring that the software meets the functional needs of the eventual users. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology from the University of Utah and is currently in her second year at the University of Maryland pursuing her Masters’ degree in Atmospheric Science.

Hyrum D. Lefler is a Senior Metallurgist in R&D with Carpenter Technology Corporation. He works primarily on developing low-cost production methods for making high-quality titanium alloy powders. Hyrum is passionate about transforming titanium metal from an exotic and little-used metal to a mainstream metal—unlocking humanity’s access to its incredible properties. Along with Hyrum’s commitment to life-improving innovations, he is service & community minded. At the age of 27 he served as Mayor of the Town of Leeds, Utah, and he has worked as a volunteer leader in the BSA for over 10 years. Hyrum successfully defended his PhD Dissertation in Metallurgical Engineering in March of 2018 here at the University of Utah.

Steven A Root is chief analytics officer, and senior vp of strategic initiatives, of accuweather, inc., the fastest growing private weather consulting company in the world. He resides in edmond, oklahoma. For more than 40-years, steven root, applying leadership and vision, has pioneered numerous applications of meteorology that have enhanced awareness, application, and demand for all types of weather information by both business and general consumers. Following his primary passion, steve has always sought to clarify meteorology for end-users, resulting in benefits for business, government and the public. His clarifications in turn resulted in greater demand for solutions through the application of meteorology, and there have been many noteworthy accomplishments.

John Willing earned a BS in Meteorology from the University of Utah in 1977 and enjoyed a very successful career as a broadcast meteorologist. After graduation, John worked as a weekend TV/radio meteorologist at KUTV where he anchored the on-air daily weather reports and provided detailed weather conditions for utility companies and on-location movie and television production companies.

Keith D. Hutchison is the President of Cloud Systems Research, LLC an organization conducting studies to improve cloud predictions in NWP and global climate models. He is also a Senior Research Fellow and Principal Investigator (PI) in the Center for Space Research at the University of Texas. He graduated from the University of Utah with a PhD in Meteorology in 1982 and is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the USAF.

David Hammond is a geologist, engineer and mineral economist with over 45 years of experience in the natural resource industries. He has been involved at one time or another with almost every energy and mineral commodity, including coal, uranium, base and precious metals, iron ore, oil & gas and most of the industrial minerals. In the course of his career he has held positions in exploration, engineering, financial analysis, marketing, planning, and business development, involving a wide range of staff and management responsibilities with Anaconda Minerals, ARCO Coal, Shell Oil and General Electric's Ladd Petroleum affiliate.