KES attended the 27th Louisiana Joint Engineering Societies Conference, which was held Feb. 23-24, 2023 in Lafayette, La. This two-day conference featured five tracks of professional education ranging from detailed technical presentations such as “Thrust Restraint for Ductile Iron Pipes” to business-related sessions such as “Legal Basics for Engineers — Contracts and Standards of Care” to engineering ethics. Bart Kemper presented, “Don’t Do That! Lessons learned from forensic engineering” on Friday, Feb. 24.
At the Annual Louisiana Engineering Society (LES) Awards Dinner, Bart Kemper was recognized with the award of the Hixon-Price National Professional Achievement Award. From the February 2023 edition of the Louisiana Engineer and Surveyor Journal:
Clarence Barton “Bart” Kemper III, P.E. began his professional career by enlisting in the United States Army in July 1983. He served over six years on active duty, his last duty station being the 82nd Airborne Division as a Sergeant. He enrolled in ROTC at Louisiana State University in 1990. He was the Army Distinguished Military Graduate and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserves in the Corps of Engineers in May 1992 while earning his BS in Mechanical Engineering.
Since graduation, Bart has worked for KnightHawk Engineering and CDI Engineering as well as starting his first firm, Kemper Imageering, Inc. in 1997. Kemper Imageering was reorganized in the wake of Hurricane Katrina as Kemper Engineering Services, LLC in late 2006 after his return from Iraq. Areas of expertise include mechanical design, pressure vessels, piping, machine design, heat transfer, fluid flow, hydraulics, fracture mechanics, failure analysis, and 3D modeling. His expertise in numerical modeling such as Finite Element Analysis, Computational Fluid Dynamics, kinematic modeling, blast modeling, and other applications has been a significant part of his success. He earned his Louisiana Professional Engineer license in 1998 and is currently licensed in 10 states and Queensland, Australia as well as being board certified in forensic engineering.
His military career as an Army Reserves engineer officer has mirrored his civilian one. After the attacks on 9/11, his military service expanded, including four mobilizations. In addition to working as a combat engineer and military construction engineer, he has served as a technical engineer and project engineer in North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Central America, and South America, including combat operations and positions up to general staff and battalion command. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2021.
Bart was very active in the LES during the 1990s, including serving in a progression of offices up through President of the Baton Rouge Section in 2001-2002. He has continued to support the LES, particularly through the Joint Engineering Societies Conference which he helped start. Bart is a member of multiple ASME Codes and Standards Committees, including Pressure Vessels for Human Occupancy, in which he co-authors the engineering safety code for diving systems, pressurized medical treatment chambers, and submersibles. He also serves on the NSPE Committee on Policy and Advocacy (COPA) and is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers. He has over a dozen patents and has authored over 25 journal and conference papers. He regularly gives classes at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and Southern University regarding computer simulations & modeling, ethics, and engineering codes.
He owes his success to his wife Krista, his parents Clarence and Bette, and his mentors Professor A.J. McPhate, P.E.; Cliff Knight, P.E.; Lt. Col. Richard Jones, P.E.; and Colonel Daniel Prine, P.E.
The Louisiana Engineering Society “National Professional Achievement” Award is named in honor of Thomas Dudley Hixson, PE, PLS (NSPE President 1993-1994) and Dr. Bobby Price, PE, PH.D. (NSPE President 2004-2005), two distinguished members of the society who served as presidents of LES and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). The purpose of this award is not only to recognize the recipient’s accomplishments and service to the engineering profession, but to encourage and inspire others to volunteer to service the Society and the Profession at the Chapter, State, Regional and National levels.
Alan Krouse, P.E., the state’s NSPE delegate, presents Bart Kemper, P.E. with Hixon-Price award for National Professional Achievement at the 2023 La. JESC at Lafayette, La.
2023 Hixon-Price Award for National Professional Achievement
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