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Study Committee
Biographical Information
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
Donald C. Winter, Chair, is Professor of Engineering Practice in the Depart-
ment of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering at the University of Michi-
gan. 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 informa-
tion 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 cor-
porate policy council. Previously, he served as president and CEO of TRW Sys-
tems; 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 Califor-
nia, 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 Depart-
ment of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at
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171
Study Committee Biographical Information
Austin. He is a major contributor to publications of the University of Texas Pe-
troleum Extension Service, including books on oil well drilling and fundamen-
tals of petroleum. Recently, Dr. Bommer was a member of the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration–U.S. Geological Survey Flow Rate Technical
Group concerning oil rate estimates escaping from the BP Mississippi Canyon
252-001 (Macondo) well. In 1979, he cofounded Bommer Engineering Com-
pany, 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 PhD 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). In 1970,
he was appointed to the faculty of MIT. In 1982 he was made a full professor
and was appointed director of the MIT Sea Grant College Program. In 1989 he
established the MIT Sea Grant Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Laboratory to
develop technology and systems for advanced autonomous surface and under-
water vehicles. His more than 100 publications display his wide range of inter-
ests. Among them are 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 Chrys-
sostomidis is a licensed engineer in the state of Massachusetts and has served on
several National Research Council (NRC) committees focusing on shipbuilding
and marine issues. He received a PhD 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. He has conducted research in the area of geoenvironmen-
tal engineering, including research on drilling fluids, containment and manage-
ment of those fluids, and fluid pressure control in the subsurface. Dr. Daniel
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 NRC’s Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board, the Board on Energy
and Environmental Systems, and the Geotechnical Board. Dr. Daniel received a
PhD 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 (NAVSEA). Previously, he served at sea aboard the
USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687) and the USS Gurnard (SSN-662). He served
as an engineering duty officer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, as project officer
for the USS Parche (SSN-683), and as assistant program manager for deep
ocean engineering in the Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Program. He
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172 Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout
served twice in the Virginia Class Submarine Program, directing design and
construction. He was executive assistant to the Commander, NAVSEA. Rear
Admiral Eccles was Seawolf program manager through the delivery of the USS
Jimmy Carter (SSN-23), where his team was awarded the Meritorious Unit
Commendation, then program manager for Advanced Undersea Systems, re-
sponsible for research and development submarines, submarine escape and res-
cue systems, and atmospheric diving systems. He was also program manager for
the design and construction of the unmanned autonomous submarine Cutthroat
(LSV-2). His previous flag officer assignments included deputy commander for
Undersea Warfare and Undersea Technology in NAVSEA and commander of
the Naval Undersea Warfare Center. He received an MS from MIT in mechani-
cal engineering, a naval engineer degree, and a master’s degree in management
from MIT’s Sloan School.
Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr., is a retired U.S. Navy Admiral. He 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 Chair-
man, he also served as the cochair of the Defense Acquisition Board; chair of
the Joint Requirements Oversight Council; and member of the National Security
Council Deputies Committee, the Nuclear Weapons Council, and the Missile
Defense Executive Board. He previously served as Commander, U.S. Joint
Forces Command; as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s first Supreme
Allied Commander Transformation; and as senior military assistant to the U.S.
Secretary of Defense. Admiral Giambastiani is a career nuclear submarine offi-
cer and gained extensive operational experience, including command at the
submarine, squadron, and fleet levels and service as a chief engineer. His opera-
tional 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, the 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 the Mi-
tre Corporation and consults independently. Since retirement, he has served on a
number of U.S. government advisory boards, investigations, and task forces for
the Secretaries of Defense and State and for the Director of the Central Intelli-
gence Agency. He currently serves as chairman of the Secretary of the Navy’s
Advisory Panel. Admiral 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 re-
search on leadership, organizational and work group safety climates, and organ-
izational factors that affect the safety behavior and performance of individual
employees. His research has contributed significantly to the scientific foundation
of tools used to assess the safety and organizational climates of organizations—
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Study Committee Biographical Information
such as at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration after the Colum-
bia accident—and to help plan interventions to improve safety climate. His re-
search has appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Manage-
ment Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Management,
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, and Personnel Psy-
chology. He has published or has forthcoming numerous book chapters on lead-
ership, 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 Er-
rors in Organizations. He has received the American Psychological Associa-
tion’s Decade of Behavior Award and the Society of Human Resource Man-
agement’s Yoder-Heneman Award, and he has been a Fulbright Senior Scholar.
Before arriving at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a fac-
ulty member at Purdue University, Texas A&M University, and Michigan State
University. Dr. Hofmann consults, conducts applied research, and leads execu-
tive workshops for a variety of governmental organizations and private corpora-
tions. He received a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology from Penn-
sylvania 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 Peo-
ple’s Republic of China. Dr. McCarthy has substantial experience in the analysis
of failures of an engineering or scientific nature. He has investigated the ground-
ing 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 very large crude carrier Amoco Cadiz. Previously,
Dr. McCarthy was chairman emeritus of Exponent, Inc., and chairman of Expo-
nent Science and Technology Consulting Company, Ltd. (Hangzhou, China). In
1992, he was appointed by the first President Bush to the President’s Commis-
sion on the National Medal of Science. Dr. McCarthy received a PhD in me-
chanical engineering from MIT. He was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering in 2004.
Najmedin Meshkati is Professor of Engineering at the University of Southern
California. As a Jefferson Science Fellow, he served as a senior science and en-
gineering adviser to the Office of the Science and Technology Adviser to the
Secretary of State (2009–2010). For the past 25 years, he has been teaching and
conducting research on risk reduction and reliability enhancement of complex
technological systems, including those in the nuclear power, aviation, and petro-
chemical and transportation industries. He has written many articles on human
factors, safety culture, and accident causation. 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 adviser in human factors and safety culture on the investiga-
tion of the BP Refinery explosion in Texas City. He was elected Fellow of the
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174 Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 1997. Dr. Meshkati served as a
member of the NRC Committee on Human Performance, Organizational Sys-
tems, and Maritime Safety. He also served as a member of the Marine Board’s
Subcommittee on Coordinated R&D Strategies for Human Performance to Im-
prove Marine Operations and Safety. Dr. Meshkati received a PhD 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 pro-
duction. He is also managing director of Nautilus International, LLC, which
conducts research and development projects pertaining to deepwater well inter-
vention and early deepwater reservoir appraisal. In 2007, he retired from Ana-
darko Petroleum Corporation as a distinguished adviser. He was also director of
the Mewbourne School of Petroleum 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 technol-
ogy in petroleum drilling. He has experience in deepwater drilling in the Gulf of
Mexico, Brazil, the North Sea, and West Africa. He currently serves as a mem-
ber of the NRC 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 PhD in min-
ing engineering from the University of Leoben. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 1990.
M. Elisabeth Paté-Cornell is Burt and Deedee McMurtry Professor and Past
Chair of the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford
University. Her specialty is engineering risk analysis with application to com-
plex systems (space, medical, etc.). Her research has focused on explicit consid-
eration 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.
She is a member of several boards, including those of Aerospace, Draper, and
InQtel. She was a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory
Board until December 2008. She received a PhD in engineering–economic sys-
tems from Stanford University. Dr. Paté-Cornell 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, regula-
tory policy, rocket propulsion, and fire safety. He served as chairman of the
California Air Resources Board, chairman of the energy and resources group of
the University of California at Berkeley, chief of the liquid systems analysis
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Study Committee Biographical Information
section at the U.S. Air Force Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, and president of the
Combustion Institute. Dr. Sawyer has served on numerous NRC committees and
is a member of NRC’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. He
holds a PhD 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 Photosys-
tems and Electronic Products division in Rochester, New York. Ms. Scott served
in numerous engineering and operations activities and carried out R&D assign-
ments 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 cur-
rent 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 MIT.
Arnold F. Stancell is Turner Professor of Chemical Engineering, Emeritus, at
Georgia Institute of Technology. Earlier in his career he was offered tenure at
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 Produc-
tion for Europe, including the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands and
Germany, and the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi.
He led the development of the now $70 billion natural gas production and lique-
fied natural gas joint venture between Mobil and Qatar. Previously, he held sen-
ior executive positions in Chemicals and Marketing and Refining. He started in
Mobil in 1962 in research and development and has nine U.S. patents in petro-
chemical processes. Dr. Stancell received an ScD in chemical engineering from
MIT; his thesis was on reservoir rock wettability and oil recovery. He is a li-
censed 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 text-
book, Reservoir Geomechanics, and was co–principal investigator of SAFOD,
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176 Macondo Well Deepwater Horizon Blowout
the scientific drilling project that drilled and sampled the San Andreas Fault at a
depth of 3 km. He serves as a senior adviser to Baker Hughes, Inc. Before join-
ing 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
PhD in geophysics from Stanford University. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 2011.
