Page 12 - 2020 March E-issue

Announcing the Award Recipients

Join us Saturday, April 18, 2020 at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center
Come congratulate the 2019 Engineer of the Year

2019 Engineer of the Year

Susan Houde-Walter, PhD

CEO

LMD Power of Light Corporation
(doing business as LaserMaxDefense)

Education:
Saint Lawrence College, BS, Liberal Arts (1976)
University of Rochester, MS, Optics (1983)
University of Rochester, PhD, Optics (1987)

How have you used your engineering skills for community and professional leadership?
Engineers work in teams. We have an ethos which is accountability to each other and the mission, and
of course, professionalism. Thats just good practice working with people in general.

What do you consider your greatest engineering achievement?

I invented life-saving technology for our military related to signature management in combat. A white
paper was circulating in the government labs which said it couldnt be done, but we knew the physics
and we are successfully delivering the technology.

Describe a key event or individual that had a profound effect on your career.
Traveling with military detail overseas (multiple trips). These trips made me immediately committed to
our Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen, and informed our product development.

What advice would you give to our scholarship recipients, who will be in attendance at the Gala?

To paraphrase Wynton Marsalis, the world-famous trumpet player, Get an instructorChart your
progress… Practice the hard parts longer… Don’t show off… Think for yourself… Look for connections
to other things. His advice is general, and has guided me for years.

Articulate your vision for engineering in Rochester
Rochester: celebrating our geekiness, and reveling when our geekiness mixes with music and the arts.
The pinnacle of technical achievement and interdisciplinary collaboration. Teaching all the children of
Rochester the joy of inventing and building technology to improve human lives.

12 | The ROCHESTER ENGINEER MARCH 2020 cover article