Smith Engineering Students To Hear From Chairman Emeritus Of "Big Dig" Contractor Parsons Brinckerhoff

Henry L. Michel, chairman emeritus, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Inc., will discuss "International Dimensions of Civil Engineering" at 4 p.m. Monday, April 9.

Michel's talk -- which is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible -- will take place in Seelye 106. Refreshments will be served.

A 1949 graduate of Columbia University, Michel spent many years in design and construction management of commercial and industrial activities in the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and the Middle East before joining Parsons-Brinckerhoff in 1965. In 1975, he led the reorganization of the 90-year-old company into a modern employee-owned corporation and was its first CEO until 1990 and then its chairman until 1994. Michel's professional involvement covered highway, transit and railroad projects; military defense facilities; nuclear waste repositories; water resources; marine and airport facilities; and environmental technology.

He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and numerous engineering societies and has been recognized by Engineering News Record as one of 125 people who have made outstanding contributions to the construction industry in the past 125 years. He is presently Senior Lecturer at MIT and Industry Professor of Construction Management at Polytechnic University in New York.

Michel's presentation is part of a year-long colloquium, titled "Executive Access," designed to give Smith students insight into some of the professional challenges of the engineering field.

Established in 1999, Smith's engineering program is the first such program at a women's college and one of only a handful at liberal arts colleges. The first 20 students in the program entered this fall.

Contact: Marti Hobbes, mhobbes@smith.edu

April 3, 2001