2023’s 30 Under 30 EC&M Electrical All Stars: Jordan Emch
JORDAN EMCH
Job Title: Electrical Facilities Engineer
Company: UT-Battelle/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Location: Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Age: 28; Years on the Job: 4
Interests: Fishing, hiking, boating, snowboarding, and traveling with his wife, Kayla
From a very young age, Jordan Emch was very interested in how things work.
“I recall very clearly taking apart the family computer that stopped working when I was nine or 10 years old to try and fix it,” he says. “My parents were not thrilled to find that the now disassembled computer could not be easily put back together.”
Born in Colorado, Emch moved to Tennessee when he was eight years old. He then graduated with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering with a concentration in power systems at Tennessee Technological University. During the summers, he worked as an intern at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the Supercomputing Computational Complex with the Facilities and Operations Group.
“My time spent as an intern at ORNL was instrumental in my overall development as an electrical engineer and gave me exposure to real-world problems in a complex and critical operating facility,” he says.
This experience also solidified his choice to concentrate in power systems and work in a support role at a critical operating facility. After graduation, he also worked as a protection and controls engineer for a design firm, and his training helped him to support the medium-voltage distribution system in his current role.
As an electrical facility engineer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), he is responsible for maintaining the configuration and continued operation of the electrical systems at the SNS campus.
He is currently pursuing his professional engineering licensure and the International Code Council E2, Commercial Electrical Inspector certification. In five to 10 years, he sees himself leading a team at a critical and complex operating facility.
“I find myself gravitating more and more toward providing higher levels of support, such as project and personnel management,” he says.