Alumnus Steve Kern Serves as Associate Publisher of Desktop Engineering

Steve Kern may not be a practicing engineer these days, but he is helping other engineers stay current in their own practice.

As associate publisher of Desktop Engineering, Kern, a 1963 civil engineering alumnus, helps produce a magazine aimed at keeping design engineers up-to-date about the latest computer software and hardware that helps them do their jobs.

Based in Peterborough, N.H., Kern focuses his specific duties on advertising sales for the 63,000-circulation magazine.  He is responsible for sales east of the Mississippi River in the United States and for sales in Europe.  His magazine sells advertising mostly  to hardware and software companies.

Desktop Engineering is a monthly magazine distributed to design engineers and engineering managers who use MCAD, data analysis, and data acquisition hardware and software in the manufacturing/process industries in product design.

Kern has been in publishing for more than three decades.  He started in the business in 1969 when he left a job as a structural engineer with Coors Brewery to become an assistant editorial contributor for Design News.

“The Design News people felt they could take an engineer and make him a writer rather than taking a journalist and making him technically savvy,” Kern explained of his career shift.

That transition has been rewarding for Kern, who has worked with an assortment of technically oriented publications throughout his career.  “Working with a variety of people in this business appeals to me,” he said.  “You get to meet a lot of terrific people in this business.”