Prior to joining UW in 2008, Tinjum was a consulting engineer for CH2M HILL and RMT Inc. Having an in-depth knowledge of civil engineering practice, he seeks to advance engineering practice through research, by sharing the results through graduate-student and continuing education programs for professional engineers, and by employing novel methods to increase public awareness and social responsibility. He has focused his efforts on critical needs, first working on hazardous waste cleanup and solid waste disposal, and, as these problems were solved, redirecting his efforts to the geotechnical engineering aspects of implementing sustainable renewable energy systems.
Tinjum’s experience as both an engineering consultant and a university professor has routinely afforded him the opportunity to provide expert analysis and opinions regarding technical issues involving multimillion-dollar standard-of-care projects and mediation. In addition, he has mentored hundreds of students at all levels (undergraduates, M.S. and Ph.D. graduate students, postdocs), taught in classes of nearly 1,000 students, and shared his research results and expertise in 80+ peer-reviewed, archived papers and many presentations.
He is also a recognized expert in the foundation response of wind turbine generator foundations, with two fully instrumented field sites that are among the only such instrumented sites in the world, and in thermal geotechnics, particularly heat transfer in variably saturated soil for buried power cable design and shallow geothermal exchange systems. He was one of the first researchers to install a fiber-optic distributed temperature-sensing network to calibrate and monitor a campus-scale geothermal exchange system. He also has expertise in hazardous waste site remediation and solid waste landfill design.
Throughout his career Tinjum has actively participated in ASCE, beginning with the student chapter at UW. He was Southwest Branch president and was awarded the Wisconsin Section’s Young Engineer of the Year award. He has published or presented 33 papers in ASCE journals and conferences in addition to conducting hundreds of journal and conference paper peer reviews.
Most recently, Tinjum is seeking to advance the understanding and acceptance of renewable energy systems by sharing his personal exploration of wind energy and solar energy generation systems while biking through Wisconsin and the upper Midwest.
Tinjum’s achievements include establishing a nonprofit organization for Hurricane Maria disaster relief in Puerto Rico. This partnership with the University of Wisconsin–Madison chapter of Engineers Without Borders is benefiting the storm survivors and also advancing the technical and social responsibility skills of the UW students.
Tinjum earned his degrees in civil and environmental engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
