Mark Dwyer: From Student to Staff

Mark Dwyer is a staff member and graduate student.

After high school in Hampden, Maine, Dwyer enrolled in chemical engineering at the University of Maine. He quickly realized chemical engineering wasn’t a good fit and decided to leave school to pursue real-world experience.

He worked as a carpenter, a pipe welder and a night janitor, which gave him perspective, experience and hands-on skills he would eventually use to renovate his own home. Eventually, Dwyer realized that in order to have the career he wanted, he would need to return to school.

After researching possible options, he decided that a civil engineering degree would best cover all the areas he was interested in. In fall 2011 he again enrolled at UMaine.

Dwyer was familiar with the Advanced Structures and Composites Center from newspaper articles and was impressed with the center’s research. It seemed like a good fit for his skills, so he toured the facility, submitted his resume, and by his second semester, was working as an undergraduate employee.

Dwyer was recognized as the student employee of the year for UMaine and statewide for the year of 2013–14. The award reflected his exceptional performance on two sets of engineering drawings. In 2012–13, he led production of a set of engineering drawings that detailed the construction and assembly sequence of VolturnUS 1:8, the first grid-connected floating wind turbine in the Americas. In 2013–14, Dwyer led the production of another set of engineering drawings for a full-scale VolturnUS.

Though he was an undergraduate student at the time, he handled work usually reserved for full-time staff, earning the respect of center staff and students.

In May 2014, Dwyer graduated with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and is now a full-time research engineer. He also is pursuing a master’s degree in civil engineering. Dwyer is currently investigating how steel hull designs for floating wind turbines compare to concrete hulls.