Alex Distel Engineer II Alex Distel earned his BS in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University. After graduating, he worked as a materials engineer in the steel casting industry for four years. During this time, he gained experience in lost-wax investment and sand-casting processes. He was also heavily involved with heat treatment, […]
Rick Sugden Principal Engineer Rick Sugden has a BS in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Mathematics. He holds NACE certification as Cathodic Protection Level 2 and has received training from ASME in Defect Assessment, In-Line Inspections, and Integrity Management. He is actively involved in API Pipeline Information Exchanges, Pipeline Integrity Groups, Forums, and technical
Brian Hart Technical Authority Brian Hart is a Mechanical Engineer with over twenty-eight years of experience in the Oil and Gas industry. His primary focus has been on NDE, welding, materials evaluation, failure analysis, third-party vendor surveillance, and external audits. Mr. Hart holds API 510, API 570, and API 653 certifications and has been an
Benjamin Wright, PMP Engineer II Ben Wright earned his BS in Construction Engineering from Iowa State University. He joined Kiefner and Associates, Inc. in 2013, focusing on pipeline integrity management, including ILI evaluation and performance validation, reassessment interval determination, assessment planning and execution, pipeline integrity, and corrosion growth assessment on corroded pipe. Ben also holds
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Zhicao Feng, PhD, PE Senior Principal Engineer Dr. Feng earned his PhD in Materials Science and Engineering from The Ohio State University. His PhD thesis topic was galvanic corrosion of coated Aluminum alloy and bare stainless steel. During his graduate school years, Dr. Feng published over ten technical papers in peer-reviewed journals. Afterward, Dr. Feng
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Trae J. Miller III, ESQ, PE, CSP, PgMP, PMP President & Chief Engineer Mr. Miller is the current Chief Engineer and President of Kiefner and Associates, Inc., which he was appointed to in October 2018. Mr. Miller studied electrical engineering at the United States Naval Academy and was honorably discharged from the Naval Service. He
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Dyke Hicks Director of Operations Dyke Hicks earned a BS in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Iowa and a BS in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State. He joined Kiefner in 2015 after nearly seven years with Koch Pipeline, LLC, and 13 years with Baker Hughes. His career began with working in the energy
Lucinda Smart Senior Engineer II Lucy Smart earned her BS and Master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University. During her time there, she supported a student-led competitive academic agreement program (CAAP) research project in tandem with PHMSA, which led to a better understanding of the principle relationships associated with material properties for non-destructive