On May 3, 2024, surveying and mapping alumnus Steve Buchanan was inducted into the UAA College of Engineering (CoEng) Alumni Hall of Fame, which honors the professional accomplishments and contributions of exceptional CoEng graduates.

Buchanan is the co-founder of geomatics company SurvBase, LLC, and has a long history surveying for other Alaska companies and teaching in the UAA Department of Geomatics. He remains involved with the department through mentoring, fundraising, program development and serving on the UAA Geomatics Advisory Board (GAB).

“The work that I do is about infrastructure support,” said Buchanan. “Roads, utilities, water, sewer, rail and people — all of which are vital to Alaska.”

However, Buchanan didn’t always plan on pursuing a career in surveying. Born in Juneau, he was first exposed to the field as a high schooler in Fairbanks, during which he did a few odd jobs working for a friend’s surveyor father. 

Originally majoring in English at the University of Colorado Boulder, Buchanan was admittedly unprepared for his first attempt at higher education, stopping out just after his first year. In the interim, his father — who was working for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the time in Denver — helped him land a position performing cadastral land surveys for the bureau. 

A lover of the outdoors, Buchanan worked seasonally for BLM for four years, hiking and surveying across Colorado before relocating to Arizona to continue BLM cadastral surveys year-round for three more years. Wanting to progress in his career, his Arizona coworkers and supervisors encouraged him to finish his education, which led him back to his home state of Alaska and UAA. For this attempt, he would be prepared, and fully committed to the university experience.

“After my first attempt at college, I made a conscious decision to be active in the whole university scene — not just go to classes, but participate in student groups and volunteer for different projects to benefit the community,” said Buchanan. “That involvement stuck with me. It’s part of my core now.”

Buchanan describes the years he attended UAA as an interesting time in the surveying industry. Due to the implementation of new technologies, both students and teachers were partners in navigating the future of the field.

“This was ’93, before the personal computer revolution,” said Buchanan. “We were learning digital processes and using tools that were new for a lot of people. Now we all use technology. Kids grow up using it. It’s part of the fabric of society. But then, everyone was learning. It was very exciting.”

The relationship between learning and industry is something that continues to inspire Buchanan. A few years after graduating, at the encouragement of one of his retiring professors, he returned to instruct full-time, drawing on his years of experience in the industry. After a fulfilling seven years as a faculty member, Buchanan left teaching to re-engage full time with surveying and co-founded SurvBase, where he continues to use his standing as an employer to help shape the curriculum at his alma mater and guide new graduates into careers.

“Having been a student and a teacher in the program, I have a lot of knowledge that maybe other employers don't have, and I try to pass that on to the new generation because I want them to be prepared,” said Buchanan. “The geomatics program is vital to Alaska, and we need these students to become professionals and help the state.”