Alumnus Burton Putrah is on the frontline of some of the most high-tech mapping techniques out there.
Putrah, who graduated in 2009 with a bachelor’s in geography and sociology, is now working for the tech company DroneBase.
Putrah works as a senior product manager focusing on solar products. He uses drones and aircraft to collect aerial data that allows him to find defects or anomalies at clients’ solar plants to ensure their plants can stay up and running.
But Putrah, originally from Jackson, Wyoming, didn’t get there overnight. He attributes his career path to what he learned and the experiences he had as a geography student at ̽̽.
Putrah always had a love for the subject.
“I was always really interested in geography as a kid,” Putrah said, recalling being the navigator on family road trips and studying maps throughout his childhood.
While attending ̽̽, he took a range of both physical and human geography classes. He discussed the well-rounded education he received, explaining, “There are certain social skills, and understanding how different communities and populations interact with their environment that has really helped me throughout my career.”
What mainly piqued Putrah’s interest during college were classes covering geographic information systems — a digital mapping technique that lets people layer data over maps. He found himself able to apply skills from those classes throughout several ̽̽-facilitated internships with the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, the government of Costa Rica and the spatial analysis lab on campus.
Following graduation, Putrah continued the work he started during his internship with the government of Costa Rica, an opportunity brought to him through the Gund Institute. A professor also connected him with a company that hired him right after graduation to work with utility risk management, specifically in vegetation management near high voltage power lines. The goal was to minimize the impact of the equipment on the natural environment and vice versa. He realized the energy sector offered an appealing challenge.
Putrah attributes much of his success to his experience with the Department of Geography.
“It was just the intimacy, the approachability and the faculty that really cared that really helped me shape my career,” he said.
Not only does he feel the department was beneficial to his professional future, but he also feels his liberal arts degree helped him stand out to employers in a tech-heavy industry.
“It has helped me have a wide range of topics that I can talk about and convey confidence to my employers,” he said.
Thirteen years following graduation, Putrah still feels passionate about what he studied. Understanding geography is understanding the world we live in, he said, and being able to understand that world is an invaluable skill.