In the eyes and life’s work of Pedro Amaya, sustainability is an art — one that seeks balance between humans’ need to develop their world while also preserving their environment.
Amaya ’87 MS (at right in photo above) talks about his work with conviction and confidence. His decisions must consider the public’s well-being, the needs of nearly 5.4 million utility customers in 11 states and the interests of his company’s stockholders.
As director of civil engineering and geotechnical services for American Electric Power (AEP), one of the nation’s largest energy producers, Amaya oversees the development and improvement of power plants, the disposal of byproducts created at coal-fired plants and the reclamation of company land previously used for surface coal mining.
“I could be reckless and damage the environment beyond repair, or I could be so conservative that you have to pay a lot for electricity,” he says. “So when you talk to me about sustainability, it is very serious. It is not an abstract concept — it is a physical concept.”
Amaya developed an interest in geotechnical engineering as he worked toward a bachelor’s degree in structural engineering in his native Colombia. In his studies and research, the names of Ohio State faculty in the field arose time and again. Impressed by their international reputations, he set his sights on a graduate degree here.
What he couldn’t foresee: He would go on to collaborate with Ohio State professors throughout his career and share his alma mater with his future wife and three of their four children. All told, the family holds nine Ohio State engineering degrees.
Three years after earning his master’s, Amaya accepted a position as a geotechnical engineer at AEP. With it came an opportunity to tap faculty expertise on the repurposing of coal combustion residues (CCRs) — byproducts of coal-burning power plants’ scrubbing processes — in economical and environmentally friendly ways.
As a result of a partnership two decades in the making, Amaya and Professor Tarunjit Butalia ’96 PhD, Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering, (at left in photo above) are pioneering work in the beneficial use of coal combustion residues. Possible only through a mutual exchange of expertise, their innovations make good sense for both the environment and business.