A finite element method expert chosen as 2026 Distinguished Alumni

Michael Burger, a finite element method expert and engineering pioneer, is the Casper College 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award winner (Courtesy photo)

Michael Burger, a finite element method expert, has been chosen as the 2026 Casper College Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award winner.

While a sophomore at Natrona County High School, Burger worked as a meat cutter at the Roundup store located in Mountain View, now a part of Mills, Wyoming. “I started as a stock boy and quickly went to the meat market, where Henry Washut, also the store owner, taught me how to cut meat,” recalled Burger.

Because he hadn’t saved enough money to attend college immediately after high school, Burger joined the U.S. Army in 1957. He was accepted into Officer Candidate School, where, as a second lieutenant, he trained recruits for two additional years. He returned to Casper in 1960 and immediately turned his attention to Casper College to begin his education. In 1962, he graduated with his A.A. degree in engineering.

Burger then headed to the University of Wyoming, where he earned both a B.S. and an M.S. in mechanical engineering. After graduate school, Burger joined the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, where he worked in computer applications and structural analysis from 1966 to 1993, a total of 27 years.

Following his time at LLNL, Burger worked at Sandia National Laboratory until 2013, then at Livermore Software Technology Corporation until 2020.

When he started at LLNL, “Most of the engineering analysis was still done using slide rules. This changed to computer programs running on large mainframe computers, such as the IBM 360. Personal computers were still in the future.”

While at LLNL, Burger used a beam-structure application program he had written while still at UW. He used that program … “to analyze structures like buildings, airplanes, and missiles. At this early stage of computer application, beams were adapted to simulate such structures,” he noted.

Burger spent his “entire” career applying the finite element method to numerically analyze and solve mechanical, heat transfer, fluid, and electromagnetics problems. “The FEM method is a powerful numerical technique used to approximate solutions to complex engineering and scientific problems … such as those in structural mechanics, heat transfer, fluid flow, and electromagnetics,” Burger said. FEM can be used, for example, to simulate a car crash.

It was at LSTC that Burger wrote a program that produced the FEM mesh. The FEM mesh “ … is used as input to an analysis program such as LS-DYNA produced by LSTC to solve mechanical, etc., problems.”

In 2009, he co-authored a paper with colleagues from LSTC and the University of Waterloo titled “Introduction of an Electromagnetism Module in LS-DYNA for Coupled Mechanical-Thermal-Electromagnetic Simulations.” With the introduction of an electromagnetism module for coupled mechanical, thermal, and electromagnetic simulations, the capabilities of LS-DYNA were dramatically expanded. Burger noted that he provided the FEM, or finite element method, input for the problem. “Even though I was not involved in the creation of LS-DYNA, I spent most of my time creating the finite element input and using LS-DYNA to solve finite element problems,” said Burger.

According to Ansys, Inc., the company that bought LSTC in 2019, the main application areas for LS-DYNA are in crash and pedestrian safety for the automotive industry worldwide, as well as much more, including automotive part manufacturing, bounce and drop tests, and aerospace issues such as bird strikes and jet engine blade containment.

Casper College Criminal Justice Instructor Art Washut nominated Burger. “I was a small boy when Mike Burger came to work for my dad at a small grocery store called the Round Up Market. Mike was a personable, hard-working, and dependable fellow. Those traits made him popular with my dad,” Washut recalled.

Years later, Burger reached out to Washut. During their conversation, in which Burger asked what Washut did at Casper College, Washut learned about Burger’s career. “I learned about Mike’s career as well and the many things that he and his team had accomplished, most importantly in the automotive safety industry with their development of the first crash dummies with impact sensors,” Washut said.

“I feel honored to be recognized by Casper College as its 2026 Distinguished Alumni. I hope my story will incentivize others to pursue a college degree, and Casper College is a great place to discover and begin a career.”

The Distinguished Alumni Award winners are nominated by their peers and chosen by the Casper College Alumni Association board of directors.

At a Glance:

• Award: Michael Burger is the recipient of the 2026 Casper College Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award.
• Early Life: A Casper native, Burger worked as a meat cutter at the Roundup store in Mountain View while attending Natrona County High School.
• Military Service: He joined the U.S. Army in 1957, eventually serving as a second lieutenant and training recruits.
• Education: Burger earned an A.A. in engineering from Casper College in 1962 before completing a B.S. and M.S. in mechanical engineering at the University of Wyoming.
• Professional Career: He spent 27 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory from 1966 to 1993 and held later roles at Sandia National Laboratory and Livermore Software Technology Corporation.
• Technical Impact: An expert in the Finite Element Method, he used numerical analysis to solve complex problems in structural mechanics, heat transfer, and electromagnetics.
• Safety Legacy: His work contributed to the development of LS-DYNA, a program used globally for automotive crash simulations and the development of the first crash dummies with impact sensors.