Instructor, Michigan Technical University

Trent grew up in northern Minnesota and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He attended Michigan Tech University in Houghton, MI and received a B.S. in Biology and an M.S. in Environmental Engineering in 1996. After graduation he worked as an Air Permit Engineer for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for five years drafting air permits for new industrial sources. Beginning in 2001 he worked for the Forest Service as an Air Resource Specialist, primarily in the states of Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin, assessing the impact of air emissions from industrial sources to forest resources and addressing smoke management issues from prescribed burning operations and wildfires.  Starting in 2014 he began detailing as an Air Resource Advisor on wildfires across the US to do smoke forecasting and monitoring. He detailed twice into the Air Program National Office in Washington DC.  In 2025 Trent took an early retirement from the Forest Service and is now an instructor in the Environmental Engineering Department at his alma matter - Michigan Tech.

Trent and his wife have 2 boys that have left the nest.  One works as a hydrologist in Wyoming, and the other is a nurse in Duluth. In his spare time Trent prays for snow so he can go X-C skiing, and also bikes, hikes, hunts, fishes and generally tries to stay outside as much as possible. Trent and his wife recently bought a camper and may disappear with it into the backwoods at any time.