Whenever Col. Christian Patterson is asked by someone to describe the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, he uses an interesting example.

“The way I kind of explain it is that ERDC is like a Rubik’s Cube,” Patterson, ERDC’s commander said. “But ERDC’s Rubik’s Cube has 100 pieces on each side and they’re always moving, and the proof of that is we’ve got more than 2,000 projects there; 2,000 projects. That’s a lot to keep up with.”

Patterson’s description came as he talked about ERDC at the Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon meeting.

“It’s a blessing to be a part of the family for the past four years,” he said. “And you know, I cherish every single day, that I have the opportunity to be able to serve with our employees and soldiers there.

“It’s a wonderful place with some awesome things that are going on,” Patterson added. “My boss, Dr. David Pittman, calls ERDC Disneyland for scientists and for the people who know about ERDC, that is definitely true.”

Patterson discussed the center’s leadership, labs and the history of ERDC, adding, “History is a big thing for us, especially this year. Later this year we are going to be celebrating our 25th anniversary as the ERDC.”

ERDC’s beginning goes back to the 1927 flood, which led to the development of the Waterways Experiment Station. It moved in World War II to portable airfields.

“Then we moved on to the Arctic with our cold regions, research and engineering laboratory in the ’60s and that kind of started a flow of new organizations there with a couple more labs, we got closer to our Corps of Engineers mission with topographical engineering with our special research lab,” Patterson said.

When ERDC received its supercomputers in the 1980s, he said, “That started a very big program within our enterprise and it continues to go strong.

“The idea was put out there in terms of coming together and being one family and joining together and synchronizing, and as a result of that, a lot of tremendous, great work has been done in support of our nation since then.”

ERDC, he said, developed wall technology that saved lives in the Pentagon on 9/11. After Katrina, ERDC engineers performed post analysis on the levees in Louisiana to prevent the levees from failing in the future.

Work was also done to improve protection from COVID-19.

Presently, Patterson said, ERDC has 14 sites in various locations in the U.S. and the majority of them are in Mississippi.

“Here, we’ve got our headquarters along with our coastal hydraulics lab, environmental laboratory, information technology Laboratory, as well as our geotechnical and structures laboratory,” he said. “But beyond the state of Mississippi, we’ve got three other labs.

“We’ve got our geospatial research lab in Alexandria, Va., our cold regions lab in Hanover, N.H., which is co-located with Dartmouth College and then up at Champagne, Ill., we have our construction engineering research laboratory started there and it’s co-located with the University of Illinois.”

There is also the permafrost tunnel research facility at Fox, Alaska.

Patterson said Vicksburg has one of the highest concentrations of engineers per capita of any city in the U.S. with a total of 3,364; 1,766 employed at ERDC with 1,100 at the Corps’ Vicksburg District. ERDC, he said, is the largest employer in Warren County and continues to hire.

“And that hiring is growing by fiscal year each and every single year,” he said. “And we’re to get the strongest talent in order to serve you and the rest of our nation.”

He said ERDC’s direct economic impact on Mississippi was $202 million in fiscal 2022, with $153 million in employee salaries, $17 million in small business partnerships and $21 million in research and development with state universities and large businesses.

“There’s a lot of work being done and we’re going to solve the problems of tomorrow,” Patterson said. “We’ve got some very robust partnerships. Everybody from the government academia, industry and international partners and we’ve got our friends at ERDCWERX. Whenever we go at solving those problems, it’s everybody.”

He said ERDC is close with the state’s universities and those partnerships continue.

He said ERDC is also involved in the community and carries its STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) outreach to the local schools.

ERDC, Patterson said, has just about every area of STEM represented among its employees.

“And whenever we tackle the problems that are out there, it’s not just one type of person that is going towards that problem,” he said. “It’s an interdisciplinary effort with all these different types of thought that are coming together and solving the problem in the best way possible, the best way structure across our entire enterprise.”