Meet our graduate students and alumni . . .
Tomas Quintero
Wind Science and Engineering
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I am a first year PhD student in the Wind Science and Engineering program at Texas Tech University. I grew up in Corpus Christi, TX and earned by B.S. with honors in civil engineering at Texas A&M University at Kingsville in 2005. A year later, I completed an M.S. in civil engineering at the University of Washington. I came to Lubbock by way of Seattle, Washington where I was a professional engineer in structural design for over five years. | |
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As a structural engineer, I've taken part in the design of a variety of structures: single and multi-family residences, commercial developments, and seismic rehabilitations of existing buildings. A handful of each have either been LEED-certified or recognized as historic structures. Once admitted to Texas Tech, I was offered (and subsequently accepted) both a stipend provided by the WiSE program along with a fellowship award from the CH Foundation. My goal is to explore a shift in my career aspirations and education. My mentor, Dr. Sang-Wook Bae, has been helping me develop specificity in my research plan. I would like to study hazard mitigation policy in an effort to become a leading figure in emergency management for urban communities. My professional engineering experience has allowed me to become acutely familiar with the various design standards that are essential to practicing engineers. My future research aims to elevate this awareness by incorporating it into an interdisciplinary exploration of public policy, community development, and risk management. It is my belief that innovative design in the 21st century will become more conscious of the communities in which structures are built or retrofitted. The communities I refer to are those in natural disaster-prone regions. This cannot be performed successfully, however, without a well-acting method in which public policy highlights a natural hazard-conscious methodology to benefit both developer and citizen. It is this element that I aim to explore as I pursue a PhD in Wind Science and Engineering at Texas Tech. |