James E. Koch, Ph.D., P.E., F.ASCE, a senior vice president and regional director for Michael Baker International’s Mid-Atlantic Region, has been named a Fellow by the ASCE Board of Direction.
Koch has more than 40 years of military and engineering firm experience, with a rich background in federal and international programs. He spent the first half of his career with the United States Army, progressing through various positions in all aspects of engineering operations before serving as a battalion and Joint Task Force commander in Central America. His final assignment was Director, U.S. Army Engineer School’s Department of Tactics, Leadership & Engineering.
He has divided his postmilitary time among academic, engineering consulting and construction since he retired from the Army. He served as the program manager for the Stanley Baker Hill tri-venture, which provided the program management for the Iraqi Reconstruction from 2004 to 2010. Koch led a company that enhanced the use of resonant beam technology for specialized road rehabilitation in China.
He has worked closely with ASCE to provide the gamut of engineering training to students in the United States, Iraq, Yemen, China and Afghanistan. Koch has also served as an adjunct faculty member at five major universities, providing teaching courses in construction engineering and management. He currently leads a multidisciplined architectural and engineering region within Michael Baker International that has approximately 575 professionals providing services in highway, bridges, planning, water, wastewater, coastal engineering, architecture, aviation, emergency planning, cost management and construction engineering.
He is a Fellow of both the Society of American Military Engineers and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.
Koch received a B.S. in commerce from Washington and Lee University in 1977, an M.S. in civil engineering and the degree of Engineer in Construction Engineering and Management from Stanford University in 1984, and a Ph.D. from the Missouri University of Science and Technology in 1993. He is a registered civil engineer in the District of Columbia.
