Kord Wissmann was a busy undergraduate at Virginia Tech-he managed to juggle his Civil Engineering studies with duties in the Corps of Cadets and membership in Chi Epsilon, Omicron Delta Kappa leadership honor society, the German Club, Student Engineers Council, Scabbard and Blade, and the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). In addition, he served a year as President of the student chapter of the Society of American Military Engineers. In 1987, Kord received his Bachelor's degree and began service as a Civil Engineering Officer in the Air National Guard, a position he continued until retiring from the military in 1995.



Moving across the continent in 1988, Mr. Wissmann accepted a job as Staff Engineer with Harding Lawson Associates in Tustin, California. A year later, he became an Associate Design Engineer for Flour Daniel, Inc., in Irvine, California, working with design teams on projects in Malaysia, the Philippine Islands, and Virginia. He also earned a master's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley.



Virginia Tech was Kord's choice for doctoral work and in 1991 he returned to Blacksburg. Specializing in Geotechnical Engineering, he conducted research sponsored by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and worked on consulting projects in Illinois and Puerto Rico.



After completing his Ph.D. in 1995, Dr. Wissmann joined Shannon & Wilson, Inc., in St. Louis, Missouri, as a Senior/Principal Engineer responsible for managing geotechnical projects. He worked on projects as diverse as the AAA Baseball Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee; Station Casino in St. Charles, Missouri; Central Artery/Tunnel in Boston, Massachusetts; Olmsted Locks and Dam in Illinois; and E.I. Hatch Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia. While in St. Louis, he also served as Chairman of ASCE's Ports and Waterways Committee and taught as an adjunct faculty member at Southern Illinois University.



In 1999 Dr. Wissmann returned to Blacksburg as Chief Engineer for the Geopier Foundation Company, Inc., a design-build specialty contractor providing soil improvement techniques for building support. He leads all engineering and R&D activities and has been instrumental in tripling the company's business volume during the past two years. In addition to supervising the technical and business efforts of 14 regional engineers in the U.S.,Dr. Wissmann oversees Geopier's engineering efforts in Europe. He is the company's liaison with researchers at the University of Utah, Iowa State University, University of Massachusetts, and Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany. His engineering work for Geopier includes projects in 26 states including Texas, Iowa, California, Tennessee, and Virginia.



Dr. Wissmann has published several technical papers and currently is working on a paper with Dr. George Filz of the Virginia Tech CEE faculty.



Kord, his wife Kavita, and their daughters Natasha and Leela fully appreciate the outdoor opportunities afforded by the New River Valley and southwest Virginia. The Wissmann family enjoys sailing, hiking, windsurfing, swimming, and bike riding.