The Sirgo Family Endowed Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering was established by the Board of Regents of The University of Texas System on Nov. 7, 2011, to benefit The University of Texas Cockrell School of Engineering. Gift funds were provided by Nancy and Eric Sirgo.

Eric Sirgo and Nancy Pliszka met their freshman year in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Eric and Nancy both graduated in August 1987 with BSME degrees and entered the Texas job market.

Eric began working for Chevron in 1987 as a facilities engineer in Midland, Texas. Over his 36-year career, the Sirgos have lived in Midland, New Orleans, Houston, Bakersfield and San Ramon, California and Aberdeen, Scotland. Eric has had numerous assignments in operations, projects, planning and technology and currently serves as Chevron’s vice president of facilities engineering.

Eric and his wife Nancy both come from engineering families. Nancy’s father, a chemical engineer trained at the University of Wisconsin, enjoyed a 38-year career at Shell Chemical. Eric’s father, a geologist who received his degree from Tulane University, enjoyed a 38-year career at Texaco. Two of Eric’s brothers are engineers working in the energy business, and six of Nancy and Eric’s nieces and nephews are engineers in the energy business.

The Sirgos’ daughter Audrey and her husband Clark completed their BSMEs at UT in 2016 and are both working as facilities engineers in Chevron’s Permian Operations. Their son Alex completed his BSCE at UT in 2019 and is currently enrolled in MIT’s Leaders for Global Operations program. Both Alex and Audrey attended the International School of Aberdeen.

Nancy and Eric acknowledge the impact that engineering careers have had on their lives — providing them a way to support their family, to solve problems that they face in their lives, and to travel the world. They are grateful that their parents pushed them toward the engineering discipline and The University of Texas at Austin.

The Sirgos are true believers in the discipline of engineering and the contributions engineers make to society, and encourage students to push themselves in the field of engineering and go out and change the world.

Updated November 2023