Meet the 2025 Outstanding Recent Graduate Award Recipients
Ben Van Camp (IEEM 2015)
Hyrum Byers (MinE 2016)
Hyrum is a mining engineer and Army National Guard officer with a passion for building—whether it’s underground infrastructure, high-performing teams, or future leaders. He currently serves as the Superintendent of Underground Development and Construction for South32’s Hermosa Project in Arizona, where he leads the execution of the $400 million Taylor twin shaft sinking project. This includes managing the sinking and equipping of two 25-foot diameter shafts to nearly 3,000 feet, a critical step in enabling long-term operations at one of the most significant base metal projects in the U.S.
His path to this role has been anything but conventional. He grew up in Rangely, Colorado, the youngest of eight kids, homeschooled until 15. He earned an associate degree in aviation maintenance before turning 19, then spent time at BYU-Idaho and served a mission for his church. After returning, he worked in an underground coal mine—an experience that deepened his interest in mining. Around that time, he began dating Ashleigh, a longtime friend, and they got married shortly after. They have now been married for 13 years and are raising four amazing kids together.
Hyrum enrolled at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology to pursue mining engineering, and it was there that he also joined the Army ROTC program. He commissioned as an Infantry Officer in the Army National Guard upon graduation. Since then, he’s balanced a dual career in mining and military service—each informing the other in terms of leadership, discipline, and resilience.
Professionally, Hyrum has worked across the country in salt, copper, and gypsum mines, holding roles in mine planning, operations, and management. He’s led teams, contributed to feasibility studies, optimized production systems, and integrated technologies like LiDAR into underground operations. His time at Resolution Copper, Georgia Pacific, and Cargill gave him a broad technical foundation, while his current role at South32 allows him to apply that experience at scale.
In the military, he’s served as a Stryker Platoon Leader, Executive Officer, and most recently as a Rifle Company Commander during a deployment to the USCENTCOM area of operations. He led 132 soldiers across seven locations in three countries, managing millions in equipment and coordinating complex operations. He now serves as an instructor at the Arizona Officer Candidate School, helping train the next generation of Army leaders.
Arizona has become home for Hyrum and his family. Whether he’s working underground or in uniform, he’s driven by a desire to serve, to solve problems, and to leave things better than he found them. Hyrum is honored to be considered for this recognition by the South Dakota School of Mines—a place that helped launch both his career and his calling.
Lindsey Westergaard (EE 2015)
Lindsey Westergaard is a consulting Solution Architect with Nucor Steel Business Technology. She has worked with Nucor for the last ten years focusing on ERP business system development and has enjoyed working on projects ranging from streamlining user interfaces to complex ERP / MES integration. She leads cross-functional teams from requirement to product delivery, and leans on her engineering background to make final business decisions based on functional and technical impacts. She’s a strong communicator often assisting in translating technical ideas to non-technical teammates or quickly distilling business needs into pseudocode for the development teams.
Outside of her day job, Lindsey has a passion for stationery and ‘analog’ organization. This hobby has encouraged her to learn new skills in design, video editing, and marketing. She’s recently become an entrepreneur opening an online business selling printable art and planning tools, with the goal inspiring people to discover the magic of writing things down by hand. She enjoys traveling, hiking, and paddleboarding with her husband Brandon Westergaard (EE 15).
Jonathan Dixon (CSc 2016)
Jon Dixon lives in Florida and works at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. He was raised in Rapid City, SD, and attended the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where he received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and a master’s degree in Computational Sciences and Robotics. During his time at Mines, he enjoyed exploring the Black Hills, playing in the SDSM&T Student Orchestra, and contributing to KTEQ as both a DJ and president of the Tech Educational Radio Council Board.
After interning in NASA’s Pathways program, he was converted to a full time engineer at Kennedy Space Center in 2018, and has since contributed to the successful launch of the Artemis I mission. Currently, he serves as the Lead Design Engineer for the Kennedy Ground Control Subsystem and the Lead Electrical Design Engineer for the Cryogenic Ground Support Equipment subsystems. The systems that he leads contribute to the safe and successful launches of future Artemis missions to the Moon and beyond.
Bianca Boll (IEEM 2015)
Bianca Boll (IEEM 2015), Black Hills Energy manager of Supervisory Control & Data Acquisition (SCADA) team for both gas and electric. The SCADA team is responsible for 99.99999% uptime for the real-time systems that use telemetered field devices to measure, monitor and control the BHE energy grid. Black Hills Energy serves ~2 million gas and electric utility customers across 8 states, and Black Hills Corporation is the largest publicly traded company in South Dakota. Bianca received the 2018 Chairman’s Award at BHE for her enthusiastic engagement in work, serving as a company ambassador, volunteering in the community, and paying it forward through Continuous Improvement training and Toastmasters leadership development. Outside of work, Bianca enjoys traveling with family and growing flowers in her garden.