National Academies Press: OpenBook

Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events (2010)

Chapter: Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

Appendix A
Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future

Donald C. Winter (Chair) is professor of engineering practice in the Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michigan. He served as the 74th Secretary of the Navy from January 2006 to March 2009. As Secretary of the Navy, he led America’s Navy and Marine Corps Team and was responsible for an annual budget in excess of $125 billion and almost 900,000 people. Previously, Dr. Winter served as a corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector. In that position, he oversaw operation of the business and its 18,000 employees, providing information technology systems and services; systems engineering and analysis; systems development and integration; scientific, engineering, and technical services; and enterprise management services. Dr. Winter also served on the company’s corporate policy council. Previously, he served as president and chief executive officer of TRW Systems; vice president and deputy general manager for group development of TRW’s Space and Electronics business; and vice president and general manager of the defense systems division of TRW. From 1980 to 1982, he was with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as program manager for space acquisition, tracking, and pointing programs. Dr. Winter received a doctorate in physics from the University of Michigan. He is also a graduate of the University of Southern California Management Policy Institute; the University of California, Los Angeles, Executive Program; and the Harvard University Program for Senior Executives in National and International Security. In 2002, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering.


Paul M. Bommer is a senior lecturer in petroleum engineering in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also a major contributor to publications of the University of Texas Petroleum Extension Service (PETEX), including books on oil well drilling and fundamentals of petroleum. Recently, Dr. Bommer was a member of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration–U.S. Geological Survey Flow Rate Technical Group concerning estimates of the rate at which oil was escaping from the BP Mississippi Canyon 252-001 (Macondo) well. In 1979, he co-founded Bommer Engineering Co., which is an oil and gas consulting company specializing in drilling and production operations and oil and gas appraisals. He is a registered professional engineer in the State of Texas. He received a doctorate in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.


Chryssostomos Chryssostomidis is the Doherty Professor of Ocean Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He was appointed to the faculty of MIT in 1970. In 1982, he was made a full professor and was also appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program. In 1989, he established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) Laboratory to develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and underwater vehicles. His more than 100

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

publications display his wide range of interests, including design methodology for ships, vortex-induced response of flexible cylinders, underwater vehicle design, and design issues in advanced shipbuilding, including the all-electric ship and T-Craft. Professor Chryssostomidis is a licensed engineer in the state of Massachusetts and has served on several National Research Council committees focusing on shipbuilding and marine issues. He received a doctorate in ship systems analysis from MIT.


David E. Daniel is president of The University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, he was dean of engineering at the University of Illinois. Earlier, Dr. Daniel was L. B. Meaders Professor of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 15 years. Dr. Daniel has conducted research in the area of geoenvironmental engineering, including research on drilling fluids, containment and management of those fluids, and fluid pressure control in the subsurface. He served as chair of the American Society of Civil Engineers’ External Review Panel, which evaluated the failure of the New Orleans levees. He also served as a member of the National Research Council’s Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, the Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, and the Geotechnical Board. Dr. Daniel received a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000.


Thomas J. Eccles is a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy. He currently serves as chief engineer and deputy commander for Naval Systems Engineering, Naval Sea Systems Command. Previously, RDML Eccles served at sea aboard USS Richard B. Russell (SSN 687) and USS Gurnard (SSN 662). As an engineering duty officer, he served at Mare Island Naval Shipyard and as project officer for USS Parche (SSN 683) and assistant program manager for deep ocean engineering in the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Program. He served twice in the Virginia Class Submarine Program, directing design and construction. He was executive assistant to the commander, Naval Sea Systems Command. RDML Eccles was Seawolf program manager through the delivery of USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23), where his team was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation, then program manager for Advanced Undersea Systems, responsible for research and development submarines, submarine escape and rescue systems, and atmospheric diving systems. He was also program manager for the design and construction of the unmanned autonomous submarine Cutthroat (Large-Scale Vehicle 2). RDML Eccles’ previous flag officer assignments included deputy commander for Undersea Warfare and Undersea Technology in the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and commander of the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. In addition to receiving a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he received the Naval Engineer degree and a master’s degree in management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.


Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., is a retired U.S. Navy admiral who served as the seventh vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (the nation’s second highest ranking military officer) from 2005 until he retired in 2007. While vice chairman, he also served as the co-chair of the Defense Acquisition Board; chair of the Joint Requirements Oversight Council; and member of the National Security Council Deputies Committee, the Nuclear

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

Weapons Council, and the Missile Defense Executive Board. He previously served as commander, U.S. Joint Forces Command; as NATO’s supreme allied commander, transformation; and as senior military assistant to the U.S. Secretary of Defense. ADM Giambastiani was a career nuclear submarine officer who gained extensive operational experience, including command at the submarine, squadron, and fleet levels. His operational assignments included several in which he was responsible for demanding at-sea operations and for the development of new technologies and experimental processes. He commanded Submarine NR-1, the Navy’s only nuclear-powered deep-diving ocean engineering and research submarine, USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), and the Submarine Force U.S. Atlantic Fleet. He currently serves on the boards of the Boeing Company, Monster Worldwide, and QinetiQ Group PLC and does independent consulting. In addition, since retirement, he has served on a number of U.S. government advisory boards, investigations, and task forces. He currently serves as chairman of the Secretary of the Navy’s Advisory Panel. ADM Giambastiani graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with leadership distinction.


David A. Hofmann is Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School. Dr. Hofmann conducts research on leadership, organizational and work group safety climates, and organizational factors that affect the safety behavior and performance of individual employees. His research has contributed significantly to the scientific foundation of assessment tools used to evaluate the safety and organizational climates of organizations—such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after the Columbia accident—and to help plan interventions to improve safety climate. Dr. Hofmann’s research has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psychology. He also has published or has forthcoming numerous book chapters on leadership, safety issues, and multilevel research methods. In 2003, he edited a scholarly book on safety in organizations (Health and Safety in Organizations: A Multilevel Perspective), and he has a second edited book forthcoming on Errors in Organizations. Dr. Hofmann has received the American Psychological Association’s Decade of Behavior Award, the Society of Human Resource Management’s Yoder-Heneman Award, and has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar. Prior to arriving at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a faculty member at Purdue University, Texas A&M University, and Michigan State University. Dr. Hofmann consults, conducts applied research, and leads executive workshops for a variety of governmental organizations and private corporations. He received a doctorate in industrial and organizational psychology from Pennsylvania State University.


Roger L. McCarthy is a private engineering consultant and a director of Shui on Land, Ltd., which is involved in large-scale urban redevelopment in the People’s Republic of China. Dr. McCarthy has substantial experience in the analysis of failures of an engineering or scientific nature. He has investigated the grounding of the Exxon Valdez, the explosion and loss of the Piper Alpha oil platform in the North Sea, the fire and explosion on the semisubmersible Glomar Arctic II, and the rudder failure on the VLCC Amoco Cadiz. Previously, Dr. McCarthy was chairman emeritus of Exponent, Inc., and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

chairman of Exponent Science and Technology Consulting Co., Ltd. (Hangzhou, China). In 1992, he was appointed by the first President Bush to the President's Commission on the National Medal of Science. Dr. McCarthy received a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.


Najmedin Meshkati is a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California. He is also a Jefferson Science Fellow, in which capacity he is serving as a senior science and engineering advisor to the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the Secretary of State. For the past 25 years, Dr. Meshkati has been teaching and conducting research on risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex technological systems, including nuclear power, aviation, and the petrochemical and transportation industries. He has written many articles on human factors, safety culture, and accident causation. In addition, Dr. Meshkati has inspected many petrochemical and nuclear power plants around the world, including Chernobyl in 1997. He worked with the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board as an expert advisor in human factors and safety culture on the investigation of the BP refinery explosion in Texas City. He was elected Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 1997. Dr. Meshkati served as a member of the National Research Council (NRC) Committee on Human Performance, Organizational Systems, and Maritime Safety. He also served as a member of the NRC Marine Board’s Subcommittee on Coordinated Research and Development Strategies for Human Performance to Improve Marine Operations and Safety. Dr. Meshkati received a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from the University of Southern California.


Keith K. Millheim is director and owner of Strategic Worldwide, LLC, which provides advisory services to oil companies for oil and gas exploration and production. He is also managing director of Nautilus International, LLC, which conducts research and development projects pertaining to deepwater well intervention and early deepwater reservoir appraisal. In 2007, he retired from Anadarko Petroleum Corporation as a distinguished advisor. He was also director of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma in Norman; director of the Institute of Drilling, Production and Economics at the Mining University of Leoben in Austria; a research consultant and drilling manager for Amoco Production Company; and a petroleum engineer for Conoco. Dr. Millheim’s research interests focus on the implementation of new technology in petroleum drilling. He has experience in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, the North Sea, and West Africa. He is currently serving as a member of the National Research Council Committee on the Review of the Scientific Accomplishments and Assessment of the Potential for Future Transformative Discoveries with U.S.-Supported Scientific Ocean Drilling. Dr. Millheim received a doctorate in mining engineering from the University of Leoben. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1990.


Elisabeth Pate-Cornell is the Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor and chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Her specialty is engineering risk analysis with application to complex systems (space,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

medicine). Her research has focused on explicit consideration of human and organizational factors in the analysis of failure risks and, recently, on the use of game theory in risk analysis. Applications in the past few years have included counterterrorism and nuclear counterproliferation problems. Dr. Pate-Cornell is a member of several boards, including Aerospace, Draper, and In-Q-Tel. She was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board until December 2008. Dr. Pate-Cornell received a doctorate in engineering economic systems from Stanford University. She was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1995.


Robert F. Sawyer is the Class of 1935 Professor of Energy, emeritus, with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. His research interests are in combustion, pollutant formation and control, regulatory policy, rocket propulsion, and fire safety. Dr. Sawyer served as chairman of the California Air Resources Board; chairman of the energy and resources group of the University of California, Berkeley; chief of the liquid systems analysis section at the U.S. Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory; and president of the Combustion Institute. He has served on numerous National Research Council (NRC) committees and is a member of the NRC’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. Dr. Sawyer holds a doctorate in aerospace science from Princeton University. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2008.


Jocelyn E. Scott is chief engineer and vice president of DuPont Engineering, Facilities and Real Estate. She joined DuPont in 1984 in the DuPont Photosystems and Electronic Products division in Rochester, NewYork. Ms. Scott served in numerous engineering and operations activities and carried out research and development assignments in various DuPont businesses. She was manager for various engineering positions and was named executive assistant to the chairman and CEO. In 2002, she was named director of DuPont Engineering and Research Technology, and in 2004 she became director of Capital Asset Productivity. In 2006, she was named director of DuPont Leveraged Operations; later that year, she became managing director, Facilities and Capital Asset Productivity. She was named vice president of DuPont Engineering in January 2008 and appointed to her current position in September 2008. Ms. Scott chaired the 2008 national conference of the Construction Users Roundtable. In addition to participating on various industry advisory boards, she has served on the Committee of Visitors for the Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems of the National Science Foundation. She received a master’s degree in chemical engineering practice from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Arnold Stancell is Turner Professor of Chemical Engineering, emeritus, at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and earlier in his career he was offered tenure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) but decided on a career in industry. He had a 31-year career with Mobil Oil, where he was vice-president, U.S. Exploration and Production, offshore and onshore, and subsequently vice-president, International Exploration and Production for Europe, including the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany, and the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Abu Dhabi. He led the development of the now $70 billion natural gas production and

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×

liquefied natural gas joint venture between Mobil and Qatar. Previously, he held senior executive positions in Chemicals and Marketing and Refining. He started at Mobil in 1962 in research and development and has nine U.S. patents in petrochemical processes. Dr. Stancell received an Sc.D. in chemical engineering from MIT, and his thesis was on reservoir rock wettability and oil recovery. He is a licensed professional engineer in New York and Connecticut. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1997.


Mark D. Zoback is the Benjamin M. Page Professor of Geophysics at Stanford University. He is also codirector of the Stanford Rock Physics and Borehole Geophysics industrial consortium. Dr. Zoback conducts research on in situ stress, fault mechanics, and reservoir geomechanics. He is the author of a textbook entitled Reservoir Geomechanics and was co–principal investigator of the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD), the scientific drilling project that drilled and sampled the San Andreas Fault at 3 km depth. He also serves as a senior adviser to Baker Hughes, Inc. Prior to joining Stanford in 1984, Dr. Zoback worked at the U.S. Geological Survey, where he served as chief of the Tectonophysics Branch. He is the 2008 recipient of the Walter H. Bucher medal from the American Geophysical Union. He received a doctorate in geophysics from Stanford University.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 20
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 21
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 22
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 23
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 24
Suggested Citation:"Appendix A Biographical Information on the Committee for the Analysis ofCauses of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future." National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council. 2010. Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/13047.
×
Page 25
Next: Appendix B Statement of Task »
Interim Report on Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Rig Blowout and Ways to Prevent Such Events Get This Book
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The National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council have released the interim report of the Committee on the Analysis of Causes of the Deepwater Horizon Explosion, Fire, and Oil Spill to Identify Measures to Prevent Similar Accidents in the Future. The interim report includes the committee's preliminary findings and observations on various actions and decisions including well design, cementing operations, well monitoring, and well control actions. The interim report also considers management, oversight, and regulation of offshore operations.

At the request of the U.S. Department of the Interior, the National Academy of Engineering/National Research Council (NAE/NRC) committee is examining the probable causes of the Deepwater Horizon explosion, fire, and oil spill in order to identify measures for preventing similar harm in the future. The study is organized under the auspices of the NAE and the NRC's Transportation Research Board, through its Marine Board, and the Division on Earth and Life Studies, with assistance from the Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences.

The study will address the performance of technologies and practices involved in the probable causes of the Macondo well blowout and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. It will also identify and recommend available technology, industry best practices, best available standards, and other measures in use around the world in deepwater exploratory drilling and well completion to avoid future occurrence of such events. The full scope and schedule for this project are available on our Current Projects Web site.

The study does not address any issues associated with the subsequent fire and release of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico, such as the rescue and fire response, plans for the spill response, spill response and clean up, or the related consequences of the oil spill on the environment or human health.

An NAE website provides information about this study and links to information about committee meetings and the composition of the committee. After meetings are held, information presented to the committee is posted on the site. The site also provides an opportunity for public comment on the topics of the study.

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