Leading U.S. contractor recognizes world-class experts in environmental restoration, telecommunications, and earthquake engineering

San Francisco, United States of America – Bechtel Corporation, the largest U.S. contractor, 2007-09-13 named three employees as Bechtel Fellows, a select group of 20 experts in science and technology who have made outstanding contributions to the company and their professions.

Bechtel Fellows are industry experts in technologies including structural analysis, seismology, environmental engineering, rail systems, gas processing, computer networking, and telecommunications.

“Fellows help keep us at the forefront of technical innovation,” said Bechtel Chairman and Chief Executive Riley Bechtel. “They play a key role in enhancing our technical capability and reputation, and they make significant contributions to professional societies, code committees, advisory councils, and international conferences—and to our customers.”

The new Bechtel Fellows are:

• Prem Attanayake, an engineering specialist in environmental restoration and monitoring. His contributions to innovative techniques for assessing ecological conditions and forecasting and mitigating risks to natural resources led to an invitation from UNESCO to join a panel developing technical guidelines to help industries protect the environment. Attanayake has two master’s degrees: one in petroleum engineering from Friendship University in Moscow and another in geological engineering from University of Windsor in Ontario. He also has a Ph.D. in civil engineering from Technical University of Nova Scotia.
• Jake MacLeod, a technology expert and innovator in wired and wireless communications, has been a pioneer in the creation of cellular telephone networks. Among his most notable assignments for Bechtel was on the Iraq infrastructure reconstruction project, where his team replaced 12 telephone switching centers in and around Baghdad in just four months. MacLeod earned a bachelor’s degree in composite science education from the University of Texas.
• Farhang Ostadan, a worldwide authority on earthquake engineering, is known for his development work on soil-structure interaction (SSI), a key factor in the seismic design of nuclear plants and other critical facilities. He co-developed a software program that has become the industry standard for SSI analysis. Ostadan holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Tehran and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan.

ABOUT BECHTEL

Based in San Francisco, Bechtel is one of the world’s premier engineering, construction, and project management companies. Since its founding in 1898, Bechtel has worked on more than 22,000 projects in 140 countries on all seven continents. Today our 40,000 employees are teamed with customers, partners, and suppliers on hundreds of projects in nearly 50 countries. For more information about Bechtel, visit www.bechtel.com