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Aerospace
Space is Infinite. So are the possibilities.
Did you know?
Aerospace engineers are experts in aerodynamics, so some of them put their skills to use in making race cars go faster or golf balls fly further.

Find out the latest aerospace news!
Make a Difference!
Many of the new aircrafts that aerospace engineers design make use of lightweight composite materials. Why? Lighter planes consume much less fuel, which reduces emissions of greenhouse gases.
Aerospace
Even the sky's not the limit for aerospace engineers, who design and build jet fighters, spaceships, rockets, planes, satellites - essentially any craft that soars through or above the atmosphere.
Where do they Work?
The aerospace industry, which includes companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has an insatiable demand for engineers. So do airline companies (American Airlines, Federal Express). Automobile manufacturers, like Ford and Toyota, also hire aerospace engineers. NASA, of course, is a big source of jobs, as are other government agencies like the Departments of Defense and Energy. And a growing number of aerospace engineers are landing jobs with commercial space operations like Virgin Galactic.
Meet One!
Neal Saiki is founder of Zero Motorcycles, which produces the high-performance electric motorcycle Saiki invented -- a bike that's clean, quiet, and capable of hitting 60 m.p.h. in four seconds.
COOL FACT: Saiki honed his skills as an aerospace engineer at NASA, where he worked on future modes of transportation -- a job that got him thinking about building a better motorcycle.

Zero Motorcycles: Watch a video about aerospace engineer Neal Saiki's electric motorcycles!

NASA Puffin: See the NASA design for a personal flying vehicle, not unlike the jet packs that appear in many sci-fi and James Bond movies.

Agricultural
Thought for Food: This field is always growing.
Agricultural
Like to eat? Give thanks to agricultural engineers. They mix cutting-edge science with the art of farming to keep us well-fed with foods that are safe, nutritious and tasty.
Did you Know?
Agricultural engineering isn't limited to planet Earth. NASA uses agricultural engineers to develop systems to grow food in space. One NASA project is developing hydroponic techniques the science of growing food in water without soil that will keep some future human colony on Mars well-fed.

Find out the latest agricultural news!
Where do they work?
Agricultural engineers will never be at a loss for career choices -- the number of industries that require their skills is vast. Here are just a few examples: farm equipment manufacturers (John Deere, International Harvester); seed companies (Pioneer Hi-Bred, Monsanto); food producers (Kraft, Kellogg's); environmental engineering firms (Mock Roos and Associates); forest product companies (Weyerhaeuser).
Cara Cowan Watts
Cara Cowan Watts is working on her doctorate in biosystems engineering at Oklahoma State's Stillwater campus. Her dissertation focuses on plant and wild-life issues in the lakes and rivers of her community.
COOL FACT: Watts also finds time to push for new and expanded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs in Cherokee Nation schools. One current program is a STEM summer camp for Cherokee kids.
Make a Difference!
Agricultural engineers are experts in biosystems, so many specialize in finding ways to protect the environment. Some, for example, work to conserve supplies of fresh water, while others develop methods to safeguard the Earth from pollution, including chemical or nutrient runoff from farms. Agricultural engineers are also involved in developing biofuels from algae -- that's right, pond scum -- a process that doesn't need arable land, which is put to better use growing food crops.

Learn more about agricultural engineering
Architectural
Bigger. Better. Smarter? Help to build a greener world.
Make a Difference!
The biggest trend in the industry today is architecture that's sustainable, or green. It is the architectural engineers who come up with workable innovations so buildings use energy and water more efficiently, creating less waste and pollution.
Architectural Engineering
Great architecture is awe-inspiring. But architectural engineers are the folks who figure out how to put it all together. Without them, the world's coolest structures would remain on the drawing board.
Where do they work?
Architectural engineers typically work for engineering, (Crossey Engineering, Maffat & Nichol, Flour Corp.) construction, (Gardiner & Theobald) and architectural (LPA Inc. of California) firms.
Meet an Engineer!
Peter D'Antonio is an energy management expert who runs his own company, PCD Engineering Services, in Boulder, CO. His firm has won several renewable-energy design awards. He recently remodeled his own home to make it generate nearly as much energy as it uses.
COOL FACT: Before starting his company back in 2000, D'Antonio was a drummer for Boulder rock band, Moonshine Moses.
Read more about Peter D'Antonio
Did you know?
Architects are finding new way to challenge architectural engineers, especially when it comes to designing buildings that reach breathtaking heights. For instance, the current tallest building in the world is the Burj Tower, which when completed, will likely soar more than 2,650 feet into the air, or more than 160 stories.

Find out the latest architectural news!
Biomedical
Modern-day Miracle Workers. It must be in their genes.
Make a Difference!
From helping to conquer deadly diseases to possibly enabling the paralyzed to regain use of their limbs, biomedical engineers apply quantitative solutions to medical problems. Their work can range from diagnostic tools and therapies to artificial organs and prosthetics.
Did you Know?
Biomedical engineering is one of the fastest-growing disciplines. U.S. schools awarded 2,969 bachelor's degrees in bioengineering in 2007 -- 23 percent more than just two years earlier.

Find out the latest biomedical news!
Where do they Work?
Biomedical engineering is a fast-growing field, as well as a wide-ranging one. Firms that hire bioengineers include pharmaceutical companies (Boehringer Mannheim, Eli Lilly), medical equipment and instrument manufacturers (Siemens Medical Systems, Thermo Fisher Scientific) and biotechs (Genentech, Genzyme Corp.). Some grads remain in academia to do research. Schools with big bioengineering departments include the University of California-San Diego and Duke University. It's a very entrepreneurial field, so it's not unusual to find bioengineers founding or working for startup companies.
Meet One!
While he was still a freshman at Duke University, William Hwang created InnoWorks, a nonprofit program that uses volunteer college students to teach science and math in cool, fun ways at summer camps to middle-school students from underprivileged areas. InnoWorks now has nine chapters in three countries. He is also studying for a M.D./Ph.D at M.I.T./Harvard.
COOL FACT: As if he wasn't busy enough while at Duke, Hwang played first violin for the Duke Symphony Orchestra.
Watch a video of William Hwang
Biomedical
From helping to conquer deadly diseases to possibly enabling the paralyzed to regain use of their limbs, biomedical engineers apply quantitative solutions to medical problems. Their work can range from diagnostic tools and therapies to artificial organs and prosthetics.
Chemical
All the Right Elements. Engineers with real good chemistry.
Chemical
Everything in nature -- including us -- is composed of chemicals. So there's no shortage of raw materials with which chemical engineers can work to produce all manner of valuable products, including lifesaving drugs and green fuels.
Make a Difference
Chemical engineers are in the forefront of efforts to make Planet Earth a cleaner, healthier place to live, from finding better ways to clean up toxic spills to developing sustainable biofuels.
Did You Know?
Many great products result from the work of chemical engineers, including that fleece you own made from recycled plastics, as well as the hypoallergenic makeup you apply to your skin without worry.

Learn more about chemical engineering!
Where Do They Work?
Chemical engineers are in great demand in many disparate industries: pharmaceuticals (Novartis, Pfizer), food (General Mills), chemicals (DuPont, Dow Chemical Co.), energy (Chevron, ConocoPhillips), and all sorts of manufacturing (3M, Procter & Gamble). State environmental health and safety agencies also employ many chemical engineers.
Michelle Gass
If you've ever enjoyed a Starbucks Caramel Frappuccino, then thank Michelle Gass -- she launched the drink. Gass is the president of Seattle's Best Coffee, a brand owned by Starbucks Corporation. She and her team come up with new coffee-based drinks by visiting Starbucks shops worldwide and interviewing customers.
COOL FACT: The Caramel Frappuccino began as a novelty drink; it's now a $2 billion brand. Other drinks she's launched include Pumpkin Spice Latte and the Tazo Tea beverage.
Read more about Michelle Gass
Civil
Adding Structure to the World. Bridges. Dams. Airports. Power plants. You name it!
Civil
Think big, think infrastructure, think civil engineering. Civil engineers design and build some of the world's biggest, most muscular structures, from interstate highways and bridges to dams and airports to water-treatment plants and power stations.
Make a Difference!
Clean water is essential to life, yet too often it is a precious and scarce commodity in developing countries, especially those hit by wars or natural disasters. Civil engineers are at the forefront of efforts to design inexpensive yet effective ways to ensure that people living in these regions have access to potable water.
Did you Know?
Civil engineers of the future will truly be on the move -- their skills will be needed to construct the rail beds for magnetic levitation trains, and to create the modular structures for planned human outposts on the moon and Mars.

Find out the latest civil engineering news!
Where do they work?
Civil engineers work in many areas essential to modern life. Industries or companies that typically employ them include the big engineering/construction/architectural firms (CH2M Hill, Bechtel Corp., Arup), environmental specialists (Meliora Environmental Design), rail and ground transportation groups (CSX Corp.), and power generators (Southern Co.). Many also work for state agencies, including public works and highway departments, or the federal government (Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers).
Meet an Engineer!
Marc Edwards is a professor at Virginia Tech, and is considered a leading expert in urban water supplies. His highest-profile research was in 2003 in Washington, D.C., where he and his graduate students determined that the city's drinking water contained drastically high levels of lead -- a toxin linked to birth defects. The cause, Edwards determined, was a disinfectant added to the water that caused lead to leach from pipes.
COOL FACT: Edwards has received many awards and honors for his work. Time magazine in 2004 called him one of nation's top scientists. Better yet, in 2007 he was named one of that year's MacArthur Fellows. Also called the "genius awards," MacArthur grants provide honorees with a $500,000 stipend over five years.
Watch a video about Marc Edwards
Computer
All Systems Go. These guys are programmed to succeed.
Computer and Software Engineering
The information-technology revolution marches on. And at its vanguard are computer engineers who work with all aspects of computing: operating systems, networks, software and hardware.
Make a Difference!
Interested in healthcare? Computer and software engineers are part of multidisciplinary efforts to develop next-generation functional imaging technologies that will provide earlier detection -- and better treatment -- of a wide range of ailments, including heart disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, and even drug and alcohol addictions.
Did you Know?
Today's fastest supercomputers will eventually be left in the (very) slow lane, computer engineers say. Future quantum computers, which work by manipulating atoms and molecules, will be millions of times faster than anything available today.

Find out the latest computer news!
Where do they work?
Microchips are embedded in everything from toasters to telephones, so many industries need computer engineers, including computer and consumer electronics manufacturers (Apple Inc., Canon, Hitachi, Hewlett-Packard); telecoms (Verizon, Qualcomm) supercomputer makers (IBM, Cray); software giants (Microsoft, Oracle); solar energy providers (SunEdison), and computer-game companies (Electronic Arts). Of course, Google, the ubiquitous provider of web-based services, certainly hires them, too -- indeed, cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are computer engineers. Read about them in the eGFI magazine.
Meet an Engineer!
Raynelle Callender attended the University of Virginia and now works for Rolls-Royce North America's civil aero-engine market, using her engineering background in a business setting. As part of her job, she gets to travel to many countries, including Brazil, China, and Germany.
COOL FACT: Callender is a member of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). In 2006, she was recognized as a Modern Day Technology Leader at the annual Black Engineer of the Year Awards conference, which recognizes individuals who are helping to shape technology in the future.
Electrical
A Strong Signal. Stay current on the latest wireless technology.
Electrical Engineering
As an electrical engineer, you've got the power -- and you'll efficiently and safely channel it from turbines, fuel cells, or hydroelectric and solar plants to homes, factories, and businesses. Electrical engineers also develop wireless communication systems, develop the latest media displays like HDTV, design computer processors and other hardware, and work in robotics.
Make a Difference!
Small, inexpensive wireless sensors that detect chemical and biological pollutants are being developed by electrical engineers. The ability to observe, model, and predict pollution in the environment is key to combating it.
Did you know?
Electrical engineers are at the forefront of wireless communications. They'll help bring to market next-generation modular cell phones, which will have snap-on/snap-off components, including larger viewing screens or keyboards.

Find out the latest electrical news!
Meet an Engineer!
Guitarist Ben Verellen designs and builds customized, powerful amplifiers for bands. He started his business in his basement, while he was still an undergraduate at the University of Washington. His amps use vacuum tubes rather than circuitry. Tube-based amps, he says, offer a superior sound, and his customers agree.
COOL FACT: Verellen has been a gigging musician since he was 13, and was bass player with Harkonen, which was a popular Tacoma band. He now plays guitar with the band Helms Alee. Watch a video of Ben Verellen
Where do they Work?
Electricity provides the spark of modern life. Accordingly, there are wide-ranging opportunities in this field. The many industries that employ electrical engineers include: power companies (Pacific Gas & Electric Co., First Energy Corp.), microchip makers (Intel, AMD), defense contractors (General Dynamics, Raytheon), fuel-cell manufacturers (Ballard Power Systems, Delphi Corp.), computer-aided design software makers (Dassault Systemes, Autodesk), and consumer electronics companies (Sony, Samsung, Toshiba).
Environmental
Good, Clean Fun. Fighting pollution, reducing pesticides and more!
Environmental
From global warming to water shortages, the Earth’s ecosystem is in crisis. Environmental engineers develop water distribution systems, sewage treatment plants, recycling methods, and other pollution prevention and control methods to solve current problems and prevent new ones.
Make a Difference!
Well, clearly, almost any work environmental engineers engage in helps make the planet a better place, whether they’re helping to cut urban air pollution or reduce the use of pesticides on farms.
Did you Know?
Environmental engineers use cutting-edge technologies in the fight against pollution, including autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles to take air quality samples.

Find out the latest environmental news!
Where do they Work?
Environmental engineering graduates have many career options at their disposal. Certainly many work for major environmental engineering/consulting firms (Groundwater and Environmental Services, Roux Associates, Greeley & Hansen, Veolia Environment), as well as construction companies (Clark Construction). Several federal agencies -- particularly the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior -- are big sources of jobs, as are environmental advocacy groups (Sierra Club, National Wildlife Fund). States also have environmental protection and natural resources department.
Meet an Engineer!
Fawn Bergen attended the University of Florida and is now a senior consulting engineer at Koogler and Associates in Gainsville, Fla., where she specializes in air quality projects. She decided to major in environmental engineering because she loves math and science. Bergen also says her mother was somewhat of a hippie and taught her children the importance of being environmentally aware: "She was recycling before it was the cool thing to do."
COOL FACT: Bergen was awarded the 2009 Outstanding Young Professional Award from the Air and Waste Management Association, a group she's long been actively involved with. She helped establish the association's student program in Florida.
Manufacturing
Have It Made. Automation is sweeping the nation.
Industrial/
Manufacturing
Today's consumers expect high-quality, regardless of whether they're buying cars, food or sports gear, and industrial/manufacturing engineers are quality-control pros. They're involved with all aspects of manufacturing, including automation (that's right, robots!), production control and materials handling.
Make a Difference!
Industrial/Manufacturing engineers work to ensure that environmental and safety standards are met -- or exceeded -- during production.
Did you Know?
Synthetic gecko tape is a new technology inspired by the stickiness of the feet of the wall-climbing lizard, and it's a new tool for industrial/manufacturing engineers. Why? The extremely strong adhesive is capable of sticking to many surfaces, including Teflon. Because it eliminates the need for soldering in some applications, and can be used with newer, lighter materials, it cuts production costs.

Find out the latest industrial/manufacturing news!
Where do they Work?
Industrial/Manufacturing engineers are found in just about every industry. Regardless of whether a company is a manufacturer of goods or a provider of services, it needs to do things better, cheaper, faster. Industries that hire manufacturing engineers include: defense contractors (ATK, General Dynamics); aerospace (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman); automotive (Ford, Toyota); sports equipment (Adidas, Jaypro); high-tech (Hewlett-Packard, IBM); consulting (Rowland Group, Deloitte); components (Horst Engineering and Manufacturing); food (Kellogg, Kraft); and services (Federal Express, UPS).
Meet an Engineer!
Pablo Paster attended California Polytechnic State University and Presidio School of Management. He is now the vice president for greenhouse gas management innovations at ClimateCHECK, a California consulting firm that helps companies reduce their CO2 footprint.
COOL FACT: Paster writes the blog, Ask Pablo, where he answers readers' questions about sustainability. Typical topics: Do LED lights really save energy? and Which type of diapers are better for the environment, cloth or disposable? (Short answers: yes and cloth.)
Materials
100% Human Ingenuity. There’s a lot that goes into making things better.
Materials
Well, clearly, there's a great demand for materials engineers in the composite materials industry (Material Sciences Corp., Materials Innovation Technologies). But the need for new and improved materials is widespread. Other sectors where their skills are needed include: office technologies (Xerox, 3M); pharmaceuticals (Johnson & Johnson, Merck); consumer goods (P&G, Unilever); paper products (Kimberly Clark); aerospace (GKN, Lockheed Martin); high-tech (Imra, Intel, Texas Instruments); and aluminum manufacturing and recycling (Novelis).
Watch a video about snowboard designers

Watch a video about materials that heal themselves!
Meet One!
Shirley Meng attended MIT, and is now an assistant professor at the University of Florida. She runs the school's Laboratory for Energy Storage and Conservation. Her area of expertise? Developing new materials to make lithium batteries -- the type used in laptops and cellphones -- robust enough to power hybrid electric cars. Development of longer-life batteries is key to making many green energy sources commercially viable.
COOL FACT: Meng can let you in on the secret of making your cellphone battery last longer -- don't let it run down too far before recharging it. If you do, she explains, it depletes the lithium and shortens its lifespan.
Material
Combine a bit of physics with a dash of chemistry and toss in equal amounts of mechanical, civil and electrical engineering, and voila! You'll produce materials engineers. These folks take plastics, glass, metals and other raw substances and turn them into new materials and useful products.
Did you Know?
When materials, products, and structures (including medical devices, bridges and cars) fail, civil, and criminal investigations are often the result. That's why forensics -- the application of science to legal matters -- is a fast-growing area for materials engineers, who use their knowledge to explain why bad things happen.

Find out the latest materials news!
Make a Difference!
Materials engineers are using nanotechnology -- the manipulation of molecules and atoms to create new composite materials -- to make flying safer. They're developing airplane skins imbued with tiny sensors that will detect weak spots long before dangerous cracks occur. Eventually, they'll likely devise materials that will repair themselves.
Mechanical
Wheels in Motion. From roller coasters to robotics, make your move.
Mechanical
Machines come in many sizes, from the massive to the nano-sized. And mechanical engineers are the folks who design, build and maintain them all.
Make a Difference!
Thermodynamics is about harnessing and putting energy to use, and it's something that mechanical engineers understand backwards and forwards. Not surprisingly then, they are central to efforts to find new, sustainable, and clean fuels.
Did you Know?
Many current and future medical innovations, such as prosthetic vein valves and nanotech sensors that detect blood glucose concentrations, result from interdisciplinary research led by mechanical engineers.

Find out the latest mechanical news!
Where do they Work?
Mechanical engineering is highly multidisciplinary, and its practitioners are experts in areas ranging from robotics to air conditioning, so they're welcome in many industries, including: consumer electronics (Motorola, Siemens); automotive (General Motors, BMW, BorgWarner); appliances (Bosch, Westinghouse); energy (Duke Power, Shell Oil, Global Energy Innovations); aerospace (Rolls Royce); medical devices (Allergan, Masimo Corp.); amusement park rides (Walt Disney World, S & S Worldwide); toys (Fisher Price); and nanotechnology (Zyvex Corp.).
Helen Greiner
Within the gee-whiz world of robots, Helen Greiner is something of a legend. She and two MIT colleagues started iRobot in 1990 -- financing it on their credit cards. It is now a $300 million business and a leading maker of practical robots: from the Roomba autonomous vacuum cleaner to PackBot, a super-sturdy military robot designed to handle reconnaissance patrols, bomb-disposals, and other dangerous missions. Greiner left iRobot in 2008 and is now chief executive of The Droid Works, a research-based company that develops cutting-edge aircraft. Her current project is, what else, a type of flying robot.
COOL FACT: When Greiner was 11, her father took her to see the original Star Wars movie. She became besotted with the robot R2D2, and was later annoyed to learn it wasn't an actual robot. That's when she decided on her future career of making robots as cool as R2D2.
Watch a video about Helen Greiner

Meet mechanical engineer and daredevil, Nate Ball
Mining
Can You Dig It? The engineering behind our greatest natural resources.
Mining
Our Earth is a treasure trove of valuable, underground resources, and mining engineers help to locate them. They and petroleum engineers also design techniques and equipment that ensure that minerals, oil and gas are extracted as safely and cleanly as possible. Moreover, some petroleum engineers also work on developing alternative energy sources.
Make a Difference!
Natural gas is a fossil fuel, but it's a much cleaner producer of electricity than oil. Gas plants also start up quickly. As such, natural gas plants are the best back-ups to plants that run on intermittent sources of energy, like solar and wind. So gas is an important transition fuel for an eventual carbon-free power system. And mining and petroleum engineers are key to finding and developing new, domestic sources of gas.
Did you Know?
Diamonds are America's favorite gem, but Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds is the only active diamond mine in the U.S. And it's a state park -- not a commercial enterprise -- so anyone can diamond hunt for a small fee. But mining engineers say prospects for future, profitable commercial mines in the U.S. are sparklingly good, and they're working to develop them.

Find out the latest mining news!
Where do they Work?
Mined materials are essential to modern life, so jobs are plentiful. Mining engineers work in many industries, including mining (BHP Billiton, Phelps Dodge Corp., Newmont); specialty machinery and equipment (Herrenknecht, Ingersoll-Rand, Joy Mining Machinery); building materials (Aggregate Industries); and construction/ engineering (Kiewit, Frontier-Kemper, Drummond Co., Granite Construction). Industries employing petroleum engineers include: major oil companies (Marathon Oil, Chevron, BP) as well as smaller ones (Apache Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Jetta Operating Co.); utilities (Duke Power); chemicals (Dow Chemical); and oil-and-gas services (Schlumberger, Halliburton, BJ Services).
Meet One!
Braden Lusk's day job is at the University of Kentucky; he's an assistant professor of mining engineering. Much of his research involves explosives and blast migration (unsurprisingly, some of his work is funded by the departments of Defense and Homeland Security). But he's got a great moonlighting gig, too. Lusk co-hosts the Discovery Channel's The Detonators, where he explains how to safely use explosives to demolish everything from skyscrapers to bridges. Lucky Lusk gets to jet to major demolition locations worldwide, from Liverpool, England, to the Bahamas.
COOL FACT: As a child, Lusk showed an early aptitude for things that go boom. He loved using Fourth of July firecrackers to blow up all manner of things, from toys to apples.
Watch Braden Lusk on The Detonators
Nuclear
The New Power Generation. Developing cleaner, safer energy for all.
Nuclear Engineering
Nuclear engineers work to safely harness one of the most powerful energy sources there is. Nuclear energy is used to operate power plants and to run some naval ships and submarines. Moreover, radioactive material also has many industrial and medical uses.
Make a Difference!
Nuclear power is the result of fission, the splitting of heavy atoms to release energy. But nuclear engineers are convinced they will eventually create much cleaner and safer energy from nuclear fusion, the melding of atomic nuclei. It would take 300 tons of coal to equal the energy derived from burning a mere ounce of fusion fuel.
Did you know?
Nuclear-powered spacecraft would be more than twice as fast than those fueled by chemical rockets. NASA currently has no nuclear spacecraft on the drawing board. But wait. The space agency is considering an underground nuclear reactor to provide power to the permanent lunar outpost planned for 2024.

Find out the latest nuclear news!
Where do they work?
Given the security and defense issues involving nuclear energy, which include weaponry (and nonproliferation), power generation, and radioactive waste disposal, one of the biggest employers of nuclear engineers is the federal government. So they're in demand at national labs (including Argonne, Los Alamos and Sandia), and at many agencies (Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Departments of Energy and Homeland Security, NASA). They also work in these industries: nuclear power (Westinghouse Electric, Babcock & Wilcox, Areva, Constellation Energy), medical (IBA, Northstar), defense , and engineering (Bechtel). Also, many opt to remain in academia. Research schools with large nuclear engineering programs include the University of Michigan, M.I.T., and Columbia University.
Meet an Engineer!
Dwight Williams attended North Carolina State University and the University of Maryland, and is a principal nuclear physicist in the Weapons Intelligence Office of the Defense Intelligence Agency. His duties include working with the White House to craft national nuclear policy. Williams is also a visiting professor at M.I.T.
COOL FACT: Don't give up on science, even if your grades aren't the best, Williams says. He admits that that was his story until he took physics in high school. Then everything just clicked and he got an A. Because Williams was also drawn to Einstein's theories, a nuclear engineering career became pretty much inevitable.
Watch a video about Dwight Williams
Ocean
Where Knowledge Runs Deep. Come explore the great unknown.
Ocean
Earth's last great frontier is its oceans, which cover 70 percent of the globe, yet are largely unexplored and only marginally understood. Ocean engineers are helping to open up, protect and put this mystery world to use. They combine civil, mechanical and electrical engineering with oceanography, mathematics, physics and materials science.
Make a Difference!
We need to know where ocean pollution is -- where it's heading, and its source -- if we're going to clean it up. Ocean engineers design the sophisticated yet robust instruments need to track sea pollution. For example, British engineers recently developed a robotic fish -- it resembles a bass -- that will monitor pollution off the coast of Spain.
Did you know?
Nearly 95 percent of the oceans remain unexplored, mainly because of harsh underseas environments. But cutting-edge autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) designed by ocean engineers are capable of going to ever greater depths for long periods of time. The REMUS 6000 AUVs developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution can work 3.7 miles below the surface. It can monitor underwater environments, take samples and map the seabeds.

Find out the latest ocean news!
Where do they work?
Ocean engineers are involved in all things aquatic, from building on- and off-shore and underseas structures, to designing high-tech monitoring devices. The many industries that require their skills include: construction (Hatch Mott MacDonald, Schiavone Construction); dredging (Manson Construction); instrumentation (FarSounder, Ultra Electronics); robotic vehicles (Deep Ocean Engineering); coastal and environmental protection (Coastal Planning and Engineering Inc.), and fish farming (Marine Construction, Ocean Spar).
Meet an Engineer!
Hanumant Singh, who attended George Mason University and MIT, is a scientist at the Deep Submergence Laboratory at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, where he develops underwater robotic vehicles. He often goes to sea with his robots to study a variety of oceanographic phenomena, including ancient shipwrecks.
COOL FACT: One of Singh's hobbies is windsurfing. Not only is it fun, he says, but it is a good way of understanding the interactions at the water-sea interface.
Watch a video of Hanumant Singh