Mandy Bengtson, senior scientist and soil ecologist in SWCA’s Reno office, has been named the Lawrence S. Semo Scientific Achievement Award winner for the first quarter of 2019.
Mandy received her Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas in 2011. She joined SWCA in our Las Vegas office in October 2014, providing expertise in research/monitoring, soil resources, restoration and reclamation, and wildlife modeling. Her skills as a soil scientist have filled a unique niche at SWCA, where she has designed and managed soil mapping efforts, contamination studies, geochemistry analysis, and soil resource interpretation for a variety of clients.
Mandy truly reflects the OneSWCA attitude by fostering close collaboration across the company. In 2016, she initiated a series of internal working group calls to bring together staff across the company interested in restoration and reclamation services, which eventually culminated in what is now SWCA’s National Focus Group for Ecological Restoration Services.
The quarterly Lawrence S. Semo Scientific Achievement Award rewards individuals for demonstrating passion, creativity, and scientific excellence in a manner that advances SWCA’s purpose, mission, vision, and values. The award is in honor of Larry Semo, who began working as a biologist for SWCA in Austin in 1993 and transferred to Denver in 1999. A respected and widely published ornithologist and all-around naturalist, Larry had an insatiable desire to learn and a great love for the outdoors until his untimely passing in 2011.