e-mosty June 2018 American Bridges American Bridges | Page 28

INTERVIEW
WITH JAMEY BARBAS
Derya Thompson
How did you choose bridge engineering? Even before I met you in person, I remember reading about
your important role in the reconstruction of the Williamsburg Bridge and many awards you received
for your contribution to the bridge industry.
Thank you Derya for your kind words. When I started college, I had never met an engineer or really
knew what engineers actually did. As a pre-med student at Barnard College in New York, I noticed an
interesting new class being offered across campus at the Columbia Engineering School entitled Bio-
Medical Engineering, and thought it would be worth investigating. I quickly discovered that engineers
apply math and science to solve real world problems and thought that was pretty amazing. I was
looking for a career that would have a positive impact on society and realized I could find it with
engineering.
I’d like to mention that it was a pleasure to work with you, Derya, as you are an exemplary engineer
and conscientious professional.
Please tell us a little about your education and early years as a bridge designer. Did you have a mentor
who guided you in your career? How important do you see the mentoring / sponsoring process in
developing young design engineers and empowering them to grow?
I applied to the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Columbia mid-way into obtaining my
liberal arts degree from Barnard College in bio-psychology and finished both degrees simultaneously.
There are some days I feel I use my degree in psychology more than my engineering degree! Because I
was off sequence with my engineering classmates, I often referred to textbooks to catch up and
research answers to my homework. In my early years of working, I was still in the habit of researching
solutions - my supervisors noticed how hard I worked trying to solve problems on my own and took this
for initiative. I was quickly promoted to greater levels of responsibility but made sure I did the technical
design work along with the managerial assignments, as I firmly believe that managers of complex
structures should be accomplished designers and analysts.
As a young engineer, I was a deputy to a Chief Engineer, Jerome Schwartz, who explained how he
approached every project in our design firm. While I did not have any formal mentors, I had many
informal ones. I learned from every supervisor and many senior technical colleagues.
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