The ASCE member mother-daughter team of Minerva Rodriguez and Isabella Salgado celebrated buying a new house last June in the very nice Altadena neighborhood of Los Angeles. Rodriguez, P.E., PMP, M.ASCE, the mentorship chair for the ASCE Metropolitan Los Angeles Branch; Salgado, A.M.ASCE, the social chair. Both professional civil engineers. It was a storybook situation. Until last week. The Eaton Fire – part of a devastating series of wildfires in Los Angeles County – forced the family to leave their home abruptly last Tuesday night. Salgado shared her story with ASCE over the phone Saturday morning from a hotel room where the family was camped out for the time being. And in episode 173 of ASCE Plot Points, Salgado talks about what it’s been like to reckon with wildfires way closer to home than she ever imagined.

It goes without saying. IRONMAN triathlons are intense.

Cold-water swimming for 2.4 miles, followed by 112 miles on a bike, and capped off with a 26.2 marathon run.

It takes someone special to conquer such a challenge.

Perhaps someone like a civil engineer?

Isaac Kontorovsky is a principal and vice president for BKF Engineers as well vice president of the ASCE San Diego Section, and he recently took on IRONMAN California. Swim, cycle, run – all of it.

And he found a lot of common ground between his civil engineering career goals and the challenge presented by the most grueling of endurance sports.

In episode 172 of ASCE Plot Points, Kontorovsky talks about the why and how of his IRONMAN experience and why it might be more relatable to civil engineers than most realize.

Learn more about Isaac and his journey at his website.

This ASCE Day – coming up next week, Nov. 5 – will mark ASCE’s 172nd anniversary.

And that’s a very long time.

For an organization to last for so many years, it needs great leadership and great leaders who give back.

Jean-Louis Briaud and Knut Eriksen are two such leaders.

Each is a member of the ASCE Foundation’s 1852 Society, a very select group of people who have generously given more than $100,000 to the Foundation during their lifetimes.

In episode 171 of the ASCE Plot Points podcast, Briaud and Eriksen talk about their career trajectories and how they came to find that giving back was the best way forward.