Appendix H
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members
Charles E. Kolb, Chair, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in chemical physics and from Princeton University with an M.A. and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Dr. Kolb is president and chief executive officer of Aerodyne Research, Inc., in Billerica, Massachusetts. His principal research interests include atmospheric and environmental chemistry, combustion chemistry, materials chemistry, and the chemical physics of rocket and aircraft exhaust plumes. He has served on several National Aeronautics and Space Administration panels dealing with environmental issues as well as on six previous National Research Council (NRC) committees and boards dealing with atmospheric and environmental chemistry. Dr. Kolb also served on the NRC’s Committee on the Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program (member, 1993-1998; vice chair, 1998-2000). He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Optical Society of America.
Dennis C. Bley is president of Buttonwood Consulting, Inc., and a principal of The WreathWood Group, a joint venture company that supports multidisciplinary research in human reliability. Dr. Bley has a Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a registered professional engineer in the state of California. He has more than 30 years of experience in nuclear and electrical engineering, reliability and availability analysis, plant and human modeling for risk assessment, Bayesian diagnostic system development, and technical management. He has served on a number of technical review panels for U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and U.S. Department of Energy programs and is a frequent lecturer in short courses for universities, industries, and government agencies. He is active in many professional organizations and is on the board of directors of the International Association for Probabilistic Safety Assessment and Management. Dr. Bley has published extensively on subjects related to risk assessment. His current research interests include applying risk analysis to diverse technological systems, modeling uncertainties in risk analysis and risk management, technical risk communication, and human reliability analysis.
Colin G. Drury is University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor of Industrial Engineering, concentrating on the application of human factors techniques to manufacturing and maintenance processes. After earning a Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, he was manager of ergonomics at Pilkington Glass. He has extensive publications on topics in industrial process control, quality control, aviation maintenance, and safety and is the North American editor of Applied Ergonomics. From 1988 to 1993, he was the founding executive director of the Center for Industrial Effectiveness. He is a fellow of the Institute of Industrial Engineers, the Ergonomics Society, and the Human Factors Ergonomics Society. Dr. Drury received the Bartlett Medal of the Ergonomics Society and the Fitts Award of the Human Factors Ergonomics Society, and he has served on a number of NRC committees. He was a member of the NRC’s Committee on the Review and Evaluation of the Army Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program from 1991 to 1995.
Jerry Fitzgerald English is a partner in the law firm of Cooper, Rose and English, LLP, where she heads the Environmental Law Department. She received a B.A. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Boston College Law School and is a member of the bar for both New Jersey and the U.S. District Court for New Jersey. Within her practice, Ms. English assists companies and communities in their legal defense and clean-up of contaminated property. Additionally, she has served as a New Jersey state senator, counsel to the governor of New Jersey, a commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and a
commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Ms. English co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Environmental Litigation Section on Superfund and Hazardous Waste and teaches the practical aspects of ongoing remediation at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. She is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Ms. English has published extensively on subjects related to environmental law. She has considerable experience in the legal aspects of hazardous waste and remediation.
J. Robert Gibson graduated from Mississippi State University with a Ph.D. in physiology. He is board-certified in toxicology by the American Board of Toxicology. Dr. Gibson retired from the DuPont Company at the end of 2001 and is now president of Gibson Consulting, LLC. He has more than 25 years of experience in toxicology and occupational safety and health and is an expert in plant safety. As a member of the NRC’s Stockpile Committee he gained extensive experience with the Chemical Stockpile Disposal Program.
Hank C. Jenkins-Smith is a professor of public policy at the George H. W. Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Chair of Business and Government at the Bush School. He was previously a professor of political science and director of the Institute for Public Policy at the University of New Mexico. Professor Jenkins-Smith’s areas of research include science and technology policy, environmental policy, public perceptions of environmental and technical risks, and national security policy. Professor Jenkins-Smith has written books on the public policy process and policy analysis, and has served on a number of committees for the National Research Council.
Walter G. May, NAE, has a B.S. in chemical engineering and an M.S. in chemistry from the University of Saskatchewan and an Sc.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the faculty of the University of Saskatchewan as a professor of chemical engineering in 1943. In 1948, he began a distinguished career with Exxon Research and Engineering Company, where he was senior science advisor from 1976 to 1983. From 1983 until his retirement in 1991, he was a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Illinois, where he taught process design, thermodynamics, chemical reactor design, separation processes, and industrial chemistry and stoichiometry. Dr. May has published extensively, has served on the editorial boards of Chemical Engineering Reviews and Chemical Engineering Progress, and has obtained numerous patents in his field. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and is a fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has received special awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He is also a registered professional engineer in the state of Illinois. Dr. May was a member of the National Research Council Committee on Alternative Chemical Demilitarization Technologies, the Stockpile Committee, and the Committee on Decontamination and Decommissioning of Uranium Enrichment Facilities.
Gregory J. McRae is the Bayer Professor of Chemical Engineering at MIT. His academic education includes a Ph.D. in engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Dr. McRae currently teaches undergraduate and graduate level courses in process modeling, control, optimization, and computer-aided design. Another research focus is product and process design to avoid environmental problems and understanding the scientific aspects of problems involving pollutant transport and transformations in multimedia environments. His other interests include computational chemistry, process dynamics, turbulent fluid flow, computational fluid dynamics, reaction engineering, sensitivity/uncertainty analysis of complex systems, nonlinear parameter estimation, parallel computing, numerical analysis, and the design of cost-effective environmental controls. Professor McRae is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes for his research in environmental and computational science, including the Presidential Young Investigator Award, the George Tallman Ladd Research Prize, the Fore-fronts of Computational Science Award, and a AAAS Environmental Science Fellowship. He is a member of Sigma Xi, the American Chemical Society, and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
Irving F. Miller is director of Technical Consulting Services at BioTechPlex, a company that specializes in developing new devices and methods for the diagnosis and treatment of disease, to aid in drug discovery, and to support the health care industry. He has a B.Ch.E from New York University, an M.S. from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, all in chemical engineering. Dr. Miller is a professional engineer in the state of New York and an educator. He was head of the departments of Chemical Engineering and Bioengineering, and associate vice chancellor for research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he is professor of bioengineering and chemical engineering, emeritus. He is also a former dean of engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering, emeritus, at the University of Akron. His professional life is an interesting blend of chemical and bioengineering that included research in blood substitutes, drug release, transport phenomena in the lungs, mechanisms of pulmonary mucociliary clearance, and pulmonary response to irritants. Dr. Miller is a member of several professional organizations, a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and a senior member of the Biomedical Engineering Society.
Donald W. Murphy, NAE, has a B.S. in chemistry from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. from Stanford University
in inorganic chemistry. Dr. Murphy recently retired from Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, where he was the director of the Applied Materials Research Department. He is currently a visiting researcher in the Chemistry Department of the University of California at Davis and an independent consultant. Dr. Murphy’s research interests center on the synthesis of inorganic materials and on energy storage and conversion. A fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, and the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Murphy has also published widely in his field.
Alvin H. Mushkatel has a B.A. from Ohio State University and an M.S. and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, all in political science; he is a professor in the School of Planning and Landscape Architecture, Arizona State University. In addition, Dr. Mushkatel is the founder and former director of the Office of Hazards Studies at Arizona State University. His research interests include emergency management, natural and technological hazards policy, and fiscal impact analysis. He has been a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Decontamination and Decommissioning of Uranium Enrichment Facilities, the Panel on Review and Evaluation of Alternative Chemical Disposal Technologies, and the Stockpile Committee from 1992 to 1998. His most recent research is focused on the intergovernmental policy conflicts involving high-level nuclear waste disposal and the role of citizens in decision-making processes.
W. Leigh Short, with a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, retired as a principal and vice president of Woodward-Clyde responsible for the management and business development activities associated with the company’s hazardous waste services in Wayne, New Jersey. Dr. Short has expertise in air pollution, chemical process engineering, hazardous waste services, feasibility studies and site remediation, and project management. He has taught courses in control technologies, both to graduate students and as a part of EPA’s national training programs. He has served as chairman of the NOx control technology review panel for the EPA.
Leo Weitzman received his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue University. He is a consultant with 29 years of experience in the development, design, permitting, and operation of equipment and facilities for treating hazardous waste and remediation debris. Dr. Weitzman has extensive experience in the disposal of hazardous waste and contaminated materials by thermal treatment, chemical reaction, solvent extraction, biological treatment, and stabilization. He has published more than 40 technical papers. Dr. Weitzman is currently serving on the National Research Council’s Committee on Review and Evaluation of Alternative Technologies for Demilitarization of Assembled Chemical Weapons: Phase 2.
