Advisors
-
-
Dr. J.N. Reddy
Distinguished Professor
Holder of the Oscar S. Wyatt Endowed Chair
Texas A&M UniversityEducation: Ph.D., Engineering Mechanics, University of Alabama in Huntsville, 1973
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Oklahoma State University, 1970.
B.E. (5yrs. Course), Mechanical Engineering, Osmania University, 1968.Research Interests
General: Formulation and analysis of problems in applied mechanics, solid and structural mechanics, computational fluid mechanics, computational heat transfer, computational solid mechanics, and applied mathematics. Specialization in the theory and applications of the finite element method, composite materials and structures, plate and shell theories, and energy and variational principles and methods.
Current Research Activities: Analysis of laminated composite plates and shells with actuators/sensors; health-monitoring of composite structures with damage; thermo-mechanical analysis of functionally graded materials; multiscale analysis of carbon nanotube-reinforced composite materials; numerical simulation of blown polymeric films; numerical modeling of surface damage in polymers; and development of robust and efficient computational technology for the solution of critical problems of mechanics (e.g., least-squares based computational algorithms for the analysis of fluid flows and plate and shell structures).
-
-
Nathan Potter
Marketing Manager, IDES
Nathan is the Marketing Manager for IDES and is responsible for creating, managing and measuring all marketing campaigns. He has held mid to high-level sales and marketing positions for Winter Park Ski Resort and PlanetClick.com, a democratic search engine that developed technologies later adopted by Google.
Nathan has been a featured speaker on B2B Internet Marketing for MarketingSherpa.com, the Wyoming Technology Organization and the Idea Expo.
Nathan holds a Bachelor's Degree in Communications with an emphasis on Marketing from Luther College (1993).
-
-
Mike Kmetz
President, IDES
Mike Kmetz is the President of IDES. He is responsible for managing the company, formulating and executing long-term strategies, and for all interactions with clients and employees. As President, Mr. Kmetz is IDES's primary decision maker, setting the tone for the company's values, ethics and culture.
Kmetz personifies IDES's commitment to delivering the highest quality plastic materials informational services to clients around the world. He has built a reputation for his strong work ethic, focus on results and exceptional ability to forge and maintain major client relationships.
He has significant experience in the plastics industry since starting IDES in 1986 as a spin off company from a research project for IBM conducted by the University of Wyoming. Since then, Kmetz has remained focused on fostering a healthy sustainable enterprise that serves a growing core of loyal customers. Kmetz oversees a staff of twenty in Laramie, Wyoming with sales offices in Europe and Mexico.
He serves on the boards of the Wyoming Technology Organization and the Wyoming Business Council, and has served on the National Engineering Advisory and the Mechanical Engineering Advisory boards at the University of Wyoming. He is also active in a number of industry organizations.
-
-
Dr. Andrew Hansen
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of WyomingAndrew Hansen received a BS in Civil Engineering from Montana State University in 1980 and a MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1982. Andrew returned to Montana State and received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1985. He has been a professor at the University of Wyoming since December of 1985.
Research Interests
Continuum Mechanics: mixture theory, multicontinuum theories, composite materials, granular materials.
-
-
Dr. Mark R. Garnich
Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering
University of WyomingMark Garnich received a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1981 and a MS in Engineering Mechanics in 1983 from the Michigan Technological University. Mark was a research engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) from 1983 until 1993 when he enrolled with the University of Wyoming where he received a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1996. He returned to PNNL for 5 years before coming back to the University of Wyoming where he has been a professor since August of 2001.
Research Interests
Mechanics of Materials: composite materials, multicontinuum theories, multiscale analyses, numerical modeling, micromechanics.
-
-
Josh Dorrell
Director of Business Development, IDES
Josh Dorrell is the Director of Business Development for IDES. His first responsibility is to help IDES' customers succeed. He leads the Prospector sales team and works with key clients to develop marketing programs and utilize iCatalog plastics data management services. Josh's creativity, persistence and problem solving attitude have helped shape IDES.
Josh started his career at IDES in 1996, while studying Mechanical Engineering at The University of Wyoming. After earning his Bachelor's Degree in 1998, he began leading the Content Development Team. In 2000, Josh began working directly with customers and moved to the Sales Team. In addition to his work at IDES, Josh teaches a course in Sales and Sales Management at the University of Wyoming, College of Business.
-
Neil Benton
CEO, Centact Solutions
A native of Casper, WY and a Natrona County High School, Casper College and University of Wyoming graduate. He holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Wyoming. While in high school he started his first business. He started a lawn mowing and landscaping business his sophomore year in high school, he ran his successful lawn business for nine years. After he sold his lawn business in 1997 he moved to Seattle, Washington where he spent 4 years working at Avenue A, Inc, the US leader in Internet digital marketing where he played a key role in the growth and start up of Avenue A, Inc. He then in 2002, along with two other business partners started Metro Coffee Company in Casper, Wyoming. In 2004 Neil started The Hoxton Group, which is a marketing firm. The Hoxton Group was formed to help businesses develop marketing strategies and to understand which advertising medium is the most effective for those strategies. In November of 2006 Neil Benton founded Centact Solutions. Centact Solutions is a web based service which helps banks manage construction loans.
The Firehole Story | Leadership Team | Associations and Memberships | Advisors | Careers | Events