Martin Fandrich Full Interview

Mechanical engineer Dr. Martin Fandrich recalls feeling engineering was the right career when he recognized he could readily visualize cross sections of objects in an undergraduate graphics class. He received a prestigious scholarship to earn his PhD from the University of Cambridge, studying vibrations. He returned to work for Rolls-Royce in Montreal, in particular the conversion of gas turbine engines originally designed for aircraft to become stationary plants for power generation. H returned to the UK to work for five years at Frazer-Nash Consultancy, working on projects "as diverse as a child's tire swing and a nuclear power plant." He subsequently created his own consulting company, Bannerman Consultants in British Columbia, where he enjoys the variety of the projects that he works on. These include: a heated press that applies a glue component to turn cleaned chopsticks into a substantial block; a mechanized boat lift for a marina; and failure analysis work. He stresses the importance of effective communication in engineering and encourages new graduate Engineers-in-Training to be humble so that they can learn from all participating in a project.