Engineer of the Moment: Michael Hopper

Our latest "Engineer of the Moment" is Michael Hopper! Mike is a true LERA success story: after interning as a student in LERA's NY office in 2008, he joined the firm full time as a Design Engineer in 2010, rising Senior Associate in 2019. Mike earned his master's and bachelor's degrees in Architectural Engineering from Penn State University, where he graduated with Honors and Distinction. He specializes in the design of post-tensioned concrete structures that achieve gravity-defying cantilevers and long spans, often deployed in buildings involving complex geometry. His notable project experience includes the award-winning Roy and Diana Vagelos Education Center in New York; the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center in New York; and the Novartis Radiation Oncology Research Office in East Hanover, NJ. Currently, he is working on two complex and high-profile projects: the University of Chicago Rubenstein Forum in Chicago and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.

Since 2018, Mike has served as a Visiting Lecturer for the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. Titled "Design of Reinforced Concrete," his course offers undergraduate engineering students insight into how reinforced concrete is properly designed and implemented on real-life construction projects.

Mike has authored and co-authored multiple articles in some of the AEC industry's top publications, such as STRUCTURE Magazine and Concrete International. Click the following links to read some of his publications:

SEAoNY Cross Sections: "Post-Tensioned Concrete in NYC: What Every Engineer Needs to Know About Designing and Building Post-Tensioned Concrete Structures in New York City"
STRUCTURE Magazine: "Columbia Medical Center’s Vertical Campus"
Concrete International: "Banding Together to Reach Out: Teamwork and Post-Tensioning Result in 40-ft Cantilevers in the Novartis Radiation Oncology Building"

Outside of the office, Mike enjoys spending time with his wife, Julie, and their two young children. He is also a sports fan and an avid hockey player, having played competitively in high school and college.

Mike poses with Halle Doenitz, Senior Associate to accept the Second Place: Mid-Rise Buildings award at the 2017 ACI Excellence in Concrete Construction Awards gala in California. It was another in a long list of accolades for the Vagelos Education Center at Columbia University Medical Center, one of Mike's notable projects.