Alec Bernstein

Hobbies: Camping, Hiking, Biking

My favorite class at Lafayette so far: CE 351, Water Resources Engineering with Professor Brandes.  He made the class challenging, but by mixing field work during labs with classroom learning, it gave a good perspective on the complex topic of water engineering.

How studying Environmental Science complements my major: In all of my engineering electives I’ve taken, I have learned the quantitative side of some environmental topics.  Being forced to take classes outside of engineering in the same subjects gives me a new more qualitative and policy perspective on topics I really enjoy related to the environment.

An environmental issue of particular interest to me: Flooding.  After seeing some pretty devastating floods in rural Honduras that have the potential to destroy communities, I sought to find out what I can do to help better predict and warn people about these floods.  I worked on EXCEL research and am currently working on an Honors Thesis relating to this topic.

Research I’ve conducted at Lafayette: I worked in the Summer 2010 on research with Professor Brandes relating to flood susceptibility prediction based on physical topographic watershed characteristics.

Outside the classroom: I am a Head Resident through the Office of Residence Life, President of Engineers Without Borders, and a member of American Society of Civil Engineers.

How I’ve spent my summers in college: I had an internship during the summer 2008 with a municipal engineering company.  Summer 2009 I was a backpacking instructor in New Mexico for 2 and a half months.  I backpacked around 200 miles that summer and it was great.  In 2010, I was at Lafayette doing EXCEL research.

My post-graduate plans: I plan to attend graduate school after my graduation in 2011 in Water Resources Engineering.  I then would like to work doing some work on flood prediction and prevention.  I know I will use a lot of the classes in the environmental science minor I took to grasp a better understanding of not only the engineering side of a problem, but also the social and political policy sides.