Aspect recently welcomed Rachel Cornwell, Sam Addlington, and Jay Pietraszek to our Seattle office. Here are Five Questions we asked to get to know them better…
Rachel Cornwell, Staff Scientist
Rachel on a January walk at Gross Reservoir in Boulder, CO
1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?
I was born and raised in Bellingham, WA. I went to school in Colorado but making the decision to return to the Pacific Northwest was an easy one (despite the rain). There is something about the nature and the people here that makes it feel like home. Although I grew up just a couple of hours north of Seattle, living in the city now feels like an entirely new place that I am excited to explore!
2. What inspired you to pursue environmental engineering? What made you curious about it?
In high school, I got the opportunity to travel to Honduras with Living Waters for the World. I worked on the engineering team to install a water purification system in a rural town called Las Bodegas. Working with mentors and community members showed me that engineering was not only about efficient, cost-effective design, but also about how that design impacts a community’s health, business opportunities, and ability to live a better life. This experience opened my eyes to the kind of impact I could make and inspired me to pursue an environmental engineering degree.
Through my time in the environmental engineering program at Colorado University, my focus shifted from water treatment to remediation of contaminated sites, and I realized that my connection with environmental remediation work began as a kid; I grew up spending most summers at Holden Village, a small retreat center in the mountains near Lake Chelan. The village was historically a mining town for the Holden Mine, which became a Superfund site in the 1980s. I remember seeing the tailing piles and remnants of the mine on hikes around the area. The orange coating of streambeds and the eerie, abandoned structures surrounding the village always left me curious. As I learn more about remediation processes, I constantly connect it back to these images that stuck in my mind as a kid.
3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?
I love that remediation work allows you to both zoom into the tiny details and zoom out to a bigger picture. I think shifting between those perspectives keeps things interesting and creates complex problems that require innovative solutions. Hitting specific cleanup levels requires precise design and detailed understanding of remediation mechanisms, but also requires an overarching understanding of stakeholders and their priorities, as well as why the remediation is important. Right now, I am excited to learn more about remediation mechanisms and to see first-hand how a remediation system impacts sites in different ways given unique sets of soil and groundwater conditions.
4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?
I love to get out and hike on the weekends! I find hiking to be the best way to get to know a new area – it’s how I came to feel at home in Colorado, and how I am rediscovering the PNW now. I also love to write songs. I’ve been re-learning how to play guitar recently and enjoy writing songs with piano and voice.
5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?
Last summer, I spent a few weeks traveling down the eastern coast of South Africa after a two-month bridge construction project in eSwatini. I would go back there in a heartbeat! That area was so diverse in culture, natural features, and things to see and do! In the time I was there I learned a lot from locals about the different ethnic groups and how their languages and experiences differ. I would love to return to that area and continue exploring other parts of southern Africa, like Zimbabwe and Mozambique, as well as more of South Africa.
Sam Adlington, Project Engineer
This is from my last trip to Bali Indonesia in 2018. With the heat and not being acclimated to the climate I was taking every opportunity to get some shade and coconut water.
1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?
I am a greater Seattle area native. I grew up on the north end of Ballard before my family moved to Shoreline when I was 10. Since I finished college I’ve lived in Bellevue, Redmond, and Lynnwood. Frankly I never really wanted to live anywhere else.
2. What inspired you to pursue remediation engineering? What made you curious about it?
Technically most of the engineering work I’m involved in is for the solid waste industry or general environmental engineering/consulting. Within solid waste engineering there are a lot of the concepts of remediation engineering that are similar, just applied differently or with alterations to timelines, capacities, and project scale.
I seemingly fell into this line of work, but it works with the way that my brain is wired and I haven’t wanted to stop since I got started. It all started in college — like most students I could not make up my mind on a major. I started out really looking at either mechanical or chemical engineering. Through engineering clubs that I participated in, I had a few friends that were getting environmental engineering degrees through the civil engineering department. I started taking classes out of curiosity since it sounded like an interesting combination of the elements that got me started with engineering. I found it really worked well with what I liked to do and where I wanted to move my career.
Fresh out of college I wound up getting a job as a groundwater sampler/field tech for a firm that specialized in civil and environmental engineering for the solid waste industry. Since then I’ve sought out projects that have elements that I’m interested in, leveraging experience and trust built to get where I’m at now.
3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?
I should preface this by saying that I really like problem-solving. I’m not the type that will sit and do Sudoku or crossword puzzles because I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I get to do daily. A big driver is that no two projects are ever identical. While there are similarities, there always seems to be some complication, technicality, or nuance that needs to be managed and accounted for which keeps the work fresh and interesting.
4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?
I always seem to have a few half-completed projects that I’m tinkering with in my spare time. Recently I’ve gotten into brewing and I’ve got a few tech/electronics projects on my workbench. The shortlist of longer-term interests includes:
Snowboarding (when the weather is cold)
Bicycling (when the weather is nicer)
Playing soccer (goalkeeper), generally I lean to indoor but the occasional full field game when the weather cooperates
In addition, I bought a house right at the start of the pandemic. So all the new chores and other tasks that come with that have been keeping me busy during the pandemic.
5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?
Europe is on my shortlist when we can safely travel again. Still haven’t made up my mind on whether or not to go with the UK or EU, but we’ve got time to think about it. Places like Finland, Norway, or Sweden really seem interesting to me, but my partner is originally from a tropical country and she will likely not want to go anywhere cold for vacation.
Jay Pietraszek, Senior Hydrogeologist
Beautiful 12 pound Silver Salmon caught on the Akwe River, southeast Alaska, September 2020
1. Where are you from? If you’re not from the Pacific Northwest, what brought you here?
I spent the majority of my childhood in the Chicago area. I came to Seattle initially after graduating from the University of Montana. But I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest for over 15 years, so it’s home now.
2. What inspired you to pursue hydrogeology? What made you curious about it?
I always loved being on or near the water, both as a kid on the Great Lakes and then during college on the rivers of Montana and Wyoming. My interest in the field grew from those experiences and memories. I became curious about the profession and industry as a student and the curiosity continues!
3. What do you like best about your area of expertise? What excites you and keeps you motivated?
I enjoy the creativity and problem solving that is required, and the complexity and diverse nature of the questions that we try to answer for our clients. I believe in the growth potential of the industry, particularly over the long term, and I am excited to keep pushing forward and helping those coming up in the profession.
4. What do you like to do when you aren’t working?
I enjoy spending time with my family, first and foremost. A Saturday evening with a couple of The Mandalorian episodes on the docket is about as good as it gets for me these days. I like tinkering around the house and learning something new. And of course, I still love being outside on the water or somewhere up in mountains, off the beaten track.
5. Where in the world would you like to travel next?
Tasmania, with a fly rod in hand!