Kevin D. Nielsen is a licensed professional engineer in Idaho and Montana. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Iowa and M.S. and B.S. degrees from Utah State University. He has worked for CH2M HILL, which is now Jacobs, since and is the Global Technology Leader for Advanced Hydraulics and CFD. Kevin has extensive experience conducting hydraulic and hydrological analyses for water supply, hydroelectric power, irrigation, fish hatchery, river systems, wastewater, stormwater and transportation projects. He is an expert in the detailed analysis of transients associated with pump stations and hydropower operations and in the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for evaluating complex hydraulics. He has extensive experience conducting CFD and physical model hydraulic analyses for Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) and tunnel projects including the analysis of various dropshaft alternatives and major terminal pump stations. As a humanitarian service project, Kevin led the site identification, design, and manual labor construction of a small dam to provide irrigation and domestic water supply to a village in Kenya in 2011.
Kevin worked as a research engineer performing detailed physical hydraulic model studies at the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research (IIHR) from 1996 to 2000. He also provided guest lectures for graduate and undergraduate courses including Mechanics of Sediment Transport, Open Channel Flow, Project Design and Management, and Principles of Hydraulics. He worked as an associate professor at Carroll College in Helena Montana from 2000 to 2006 where he taught upper level civil engineering courses in fluid mechanics, hydraulics, hydrology, environmental engineering, water and wastewater treatment, senior project design, and engineering economics. He also taught courses in international perspectives in engineering that included trips to Italy featuring ancient engineering achievements and discussions with the local engineers dealing with rising water challenges in Venice, stabilization of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, and the failure of Vajont Dam in 1963.
Kevin has held numerous leadership positions at the Society-level of ASCE. He served on the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) Board from 2017 to 2020. He served on the EWRI Hydraulics and Waterways Council, EWRI Hydraulic Structures Technical Committee, numerous EWRI task committees such as Teaching of Hydraulic Design, Engineering for Fish Passage and Enhancement, Two Phase Flow in Urban Water Systems, and the National Inventory of Low Head Dams. Prior to his involvement at the Society-level, Kevin held numerous leadership positions at the state and chapter levels of ASCE and the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers. Kevin was named the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers Young Engineer of the Year for 1991 and was selected as the Outstanding Junior Engineer at Utah State University for 1982.