Former students Liu and Simon named rising stars in Civil + Structural Engineering
Two former students of the Zachry Department of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University, Ivan Liu ’11 and Jessica Simon ’07, were recognized as Civil + Structural Engineer magazine’s 2016 Rising Stars.
Liu and Simon are two of just 25 professionals chosen for this honor. Rising Stars are individuals 40 years old or younger who have shown exceptional technical capability, leadership ability, effective teaching or research, or public service benefiting the civil engineering profession, their employers, project owners and society.
Liu is a bridge engineer with Finley Engineering Group in Tallahassee, Florida. Liu has performed design and construction engineering services for many types of complex bridges, including precast segmental, cast-in-place segmental and cable-stayed bridges. With his background in engineering software, he has become a major part of all bridge modeling and analysis at Finley. He is a major contributor to development of junior level staff and interns, guiding them through their work and pushing them to reach their potential. As a student, he led the Texas A&M Steel Bridge Team to a national competition for three straight years, and as an intern with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute he performed structural analysis of traffic barriers and crash testing to correlate theoretical behaviors with actual results. In his personal time, Liu is involved with the Association of Former Students at Texas A&M to mentor and encourage current civil engineering students with career advice and goal setting.
Simon, an associate/project manager at JQ Engineering, LLP, in Dallas, has participated in the structural design of some of the more complex projects undertaken by the firm. Her work includes the evaluation and strengthening of historic structures to gain compliance with current building codes, the design of vibration-sensitive structures critical to research and education and the development of structural designs sympathetic to the aesthetic desires of nationally recognized architects. She is currently leading the structural team designing a 200,000-square-foot engineering research Building for the University of Texas at Dallas and a visitor center at Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. Simon also leads technical review committees tasked with creating and codifying the firm’s design and management standards. Simon was named an associate at JQ Engineering in 2015, the youngest associate in the firm’s history. She also helped spearhead JQ’s efforts to increase its engineers’ direct involvement and proficiency with BIM software. Simon leads multiple community outreach programs, is an avid advocate for women in the profession and is responsible for the establishment of a group within JQ leading the conversation about finding the right work/life balance.
Contributing author: Ryan Terry