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Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve (2010)

Chapter: Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
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Appendix B
Biographies of Committee Members

Charles G. Groat, Co-Chair, is the John A. and Katherine G. Jackson Chair in Energy and Mineral Resources, Department of Geological Sciences, and professor of geological sciences and public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He received an A.B. in geology from the University of Rochester, an M.S. in geology from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Groat has over 25 years of involvement in geological studies, energy, and minerals resource assessment, ground-water occurrence and protection, geomorphic processes and landform evolution in desert areas, and coastal studies. From 1998 to 2005 he served as the 13th director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). At the USGS he emphasized integrated scientific approaches to understanding complex natural systems and the use of these understandings in management decisions. Dr. Groat is a member of the Geological Society of America, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.


Robert C. Richardson, Co-Chair, is the F.R. Newman Professor of Physics and the vice provost for research at Cornell University. He received a B.S. and an M.S. in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. After serving in the U.S. Army, he obtained his Ph.D. from Duke University in 1966. He is a member of the governing board at Duke University, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Brookhaven Science Associates. Dr. Richardson has served as chair of various committees of the American Physical Society (APS) and recently completed a term on the governing board of the National Science Board. Dr. Richardson

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×

was awarded the Nobel prize for the discovery that liquid helium-3 undergoes a pairing transition similar to that of superconductors. He has also received a Guggenheim fellowship, the Eighth Simon Memorial Prize (of the British Physical Society), the Buckley Prize of the APS, and an honorary doctorate of science from the Ohio State University. He has published more than 95 scientific articles in leading research journals.


Robert R. Beebe (NAE) is a former senior vice president of Homestake Mining Company. He has broad expertise in mineral economics and public policy, mineral processing and extractive metallurgical research, and mining and mineral project development and administration. Mr. Beebe is a member of the Society for Mining, Minerals and Exploration, and in 2001 he was named a national associate of the National Academies.


John R. Campbell is president and CEO of J.R. Campbell & Associates, Inc. Prior to forming this consulting firm in 1981, John Campbell held management and executive positions with two leading industrial gas companies. His last position was as executive vice president and chief operating officer of Burdox, Inc. (later, AGA Gas, Inc., and now part of Linde AG). In that company, then the largest of the independent U.S. regional gas companies, Mr. Campbell was responsible for day-to-day operations. Before that, he worked in a variety of gas-related marketing and management positions for Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. Mr. Campbell has an engineering degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an M.B.A. from Lehigh University. He served as president and board member of the International Oxygen Manufacturers Association and has been active in the Compressed Gas Association, the Gases & Welding Distributor Association, and several associations of gas-using industry and service sectors.


Moses H. Chan is Evan Pugh Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University. He received a B.A. from Bridgewater College and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Cornell University. His research interests are phase transitions, particularly quantum fluids and solids at cryogenic temperatures, reduced dimensionalities, and the presence of disorder. Dr. Chan received the Fritz London Memorial Prize in Low-Temperature Physics (1996), the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (1986), the Senior Research Fellowship of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1982). Dr. Chan is also a fellow of the American Physical Society.


Janie M. Chermak is a professor of economics at the University of New Mexico. Her research interests focus on the economics associated with natural resources and the environment and include studies of natural gas markets and regulation, modeling the uncertainties associated with natural gas supplies, and the economics of

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×

exhaustible resources. Portions of her work involve dynamic optimization modeling. She has held a variety of professional appointments, including as an economic and geologic analyst for the American Welding Society, the Homestake Mining Company, and the Natural Gas Corporation of California. In 1994, she received the Outstanding Research Achievement Award from the Naval Postgraduate School.


Carol A. Dahl is a professor in the Division of Economics and Business and director of the Joint International Degree Program in Petroleum Economics and Management at the Colorado School of Mines. Her research centers on international energy markets, government energy policy, and energy market modeling and forecasting techniques. She received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in economics from the University of Wisconsin.


Thomas Elam is the helium program manager for NASA fluids management and the technical representative for consolidated helium contracts for NASA. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Rutgers University. Mr. Elam coordinates technical issues of the NASA helium contracts with NASA helium use locations and the helium supply companies. He follows the market conditions affecting availability and costs of helium and communicates supply and cost threats to NASA programs and customers. Mr. Elam is the NASA technical liaison for the BLM helium program and commercial helium suppliers.


Allen M. Goldman (NAS) is Regents Professor of physics at the University of Minnesota. He received an A.B. in chemistry and physics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University. Dr. Goldman’s research interests are the properties of superconductors and selected magnetic materials in the configuration of thin films. Dr. Goldman received the Fritz London Memorial Prize for low-temperature physics in 2002. Dr. Goldman is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.


Norman E. Hartness is an independent consultant for EOP Group, Inc., a natural resources and environmental policy consulting firm. In this capacity, he contributes economic and policy analysis in a variety of natural resources areas. Mr. Hartness retired from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as special assistant (economic analysis) to the OMB’s deputy associate director for the Natural Resources Division. In this position he provided technical consultation and other assistance to budget examiners throughout the Natural Resources Division in designing and implementing cost benefit studies, special studies, and other policy analyses. Mr. Hartness worked on programs in all areas of Division responsibility: agricultural, environmental, civil works, and Department of Interior programs. He

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×

received the Bureau of Budget Award for Professional Achievement (1970), the OMB Award for Outstanding Service (1985), the OMB Award for Outstanding Service (1990), and the OMB Natural Resources Division Award (1992). Mr. Hartness studied government at Harvard College, receiving the A.B. degree, and studied at the graduate level in the Department of Economics, University of Maryland.


W. John Lee (NAE) is the Regents Professor and holds the L.F. Peterson Endowed Chair in the Harold Vance Department of Petroleum Engineering at Texas A&M University. Dr. Lee recently worked in Washington, D.C., as an academic fellow for the Securities and Exchange Commission on the issue of oil and gas reserves and in the natural resources group, which includes mining. After receiving B.Ch.E., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Dr. Lee worked for the Reservoir Studies Division of Exxon Production Research Company. His work focused on simulator reservoir studies of leading Exxon reservoirs in Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and South Texas. Later he joined and eventually headed the major fields study group of Exxon Company, USA, where he supervised integrated field studies of Exxon’s largest domestic reservoirs. He joined Texas A&M University in 1977. Dr. Lee was elected to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences in 2006. He received the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) DeGolyer Distinguished Service Medal, the society’s top service award, in 2004, the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME)/SPE Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, the societies’ top technical award, in 2003, and the AIME Mineral Industry Education Award in 2002.


Albert Migliori is head of the Resonant Ultrasound Spectroscopy Magnet Laboratory group, part of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). He received a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1973 and, following a postdoctoral position at LANL, became a staff member there in 1976. He has remained with LANL since that time. He is the codiscoverer of acoustic heat engines and has won numerous awards for his work in resonant ultrasound spectroscopy. His expertise includes work on the Mossbauer effect, the design of liquid working fluid heat engines, and studies of superconductors and Kondo systems, insulators, and semimetals. Dr. Migliori was elected an APS Fellow through the Forum on Industrial and Applied Physics in recognition of his work on resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and its application in materials physics and technology. He is also a fellow of LANL, holds 21 patents, and has written more than a hundred publications, five book chapters, and one book.


David C. Mowery is the William A. and Betty H. Hasler Professor of New Enterprise Development at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×

He received bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees in economics from Stanford University and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Business School. His research addresses the economics of technological innovation and the effects of public policies on innovation; he has testified before congressional committees and served as an adviser for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, federal agencies, private companies, and industrial firms. Dr. Mowery has published numerous academic papers and has written or edited a number of books, including “Ivory Tower” and Industrial Innovation: University-Industry Technology Transfer Before and After the Bayh-Dole Act, Paths of Innovation: Technological Change in 20th-Century America, and The International Computer Software Industry: A Comparative Study of Industry Evolution and Structure. His academic awards include the Raymond Vernon Prize of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the Economic History Association’s Fritz Redlich Prize, the Business History Review’s Newcomen Prize, and the Cheit Outstanding Teaching Award.


Michael Prats (NAE) is president of Michael Prats & Associates, Inc., a small reservoir engineering consulting firm. Earlier, Mr. Prats worked continuously for or with Shell Oil Company affiliates until his retirement in 1989. He holds a B.S. in physics (with honors) and an M.A. in physics, both from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to thermal recovery processes (his main field), his areas of expertise include (l) displacement processes, (2) hydraulic fracturing, (3) reservoir characterization, (4) unconventional raw materials (such as coal and oil shale), and (5) reservoir compaction. Mr. Prats holds more than 33 patents, most of them related to oil recovery techniques. He has served as the director of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), as a senior technical editor at SPE, and as chairman of numerous SPE committees. He is an Honorary Member of AIME and the SPE, from which he received the 1974 SPE Lester C. Uren Award Certificate, the 1993 AIME Anthony F. Lucas Gold Medal, and the Thermal Recovery Distinguished Achievement Award in 1991 and was named an AIME Pioneer in Enhanced Oil Recovery in 1986 and in Hydraulic Fracturing in 2005. He was elected to the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, from which he received the Kapitza Gold Medal in 1995, and to the Mexican National Academy of Engineering as corresponding member.


J. Benjamin Reinoehl is principal and part owner of RMW Solutions. He received a B.S. in engineering and an M.B.A. from Lehigh University. Before retiring, he worked at Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., as director of business development, where he was responsible for the worldwide helium and hydrogen product lines and the development of new sources for these gases. Mr. Reinoehl developed the first supply of liquid helium in Algeria from LNG-sourced tail-gases. He received the 1993 Air Products Chairman’s Award for Excellence. His expertise is in helium recovery, purification, liquefaction, and marketing; helium sourcing development,

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×

evaluations, and projects; hydrogen production, purification, liquefaction, and marketing; and industrial gases economic evaluations and project cost estimates.


Igor Sekachev is group leader of the Vacuum Systems and Cryogenic Engineering Group at TRIUMF, Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics. In this capacity, Mr. Sekachev works with helium storage, use, and distribution for a large science research facility and brings expertise in cryogenics engineering. Mr. Sekachev has over 20 years of engineering physics experience in vacuum, cryogenics, and mechanical, electrical, and electromechanical instrumentation design and construction. He is familiar with the commissioning, operation, and maintenance procedures for equipment and instrumentation used in nuclear and particle physics, accelerators, and industrial installations. He also has extensive international contacts in cryogenics in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has an M.Sc. in engineering physics from Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (a university).


Thomas A. Siewert leads the Structural Materials Group in the Materials Reliability Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He received his Ph.D. in metallurgy from the University of Wisconsin (following earlier degrees in applied math and physics, and materials science), spent about 10 years as an electrode developer in the welding industry, and currently has more than 20 years of government service as a researcher. Dr. Siewert is a fellow and honorary member of the American Welding Society and past chair of the American Council of the International Institute of Welding. He is an adjunct professor in the Center for Welding and Joining Research at the Colorado School of Mines, teaches several courses a year in material forensics for OSHA inspectors, and is a coeditor of the ASM Handbook on Welding.


Mark H. Thiemens (NAS) is a professor of chemistry and biochemistry and dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California at San Diego. He developed the mass-independent fractionation process for stable isotopes and used the process to gain a deeper understanding of Earth’s atmospheric composition and evolution. A portion of his work involves understanding the quantum-level physical and chemical mechanisms of the process. He has also used this process to study a wide array of phenomena, including the origin and evolution of the solar system; the source and transformation of greenhouse gases in the troposphere; the chemistry of the stratosphere and mesosphere, especially the ozone cycle; the chemistry of the ancient martian atmosphere; the origin and evolution of oxygen and ozone and life in Earth’s Precambrian; the history of seawater over millions of years; and changes in the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 118
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 119
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 121
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 122
Suggested Citation:"Appendix B: Biographies of Committee Members." National Research Council. 2010. Selling the Nation's Helium Reserve. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12844.
×
Page 123
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Helium has long been the subject of public policy deliberation and management, largely because of its many strategic uses and its unusual source-it is a derived product of natural gas and its market has several anomalous characteristics. Shortly after sources of helium were discovered at the beginning of the last century, the U.S. government recognized helium's potential importance to the nation's interests and placed its production and availability under strict governmental control. In the 1960s, helium's strategic value in cold war efforts was reflected in policies that resulted in the accumulation of a large reserve of helium owned by the federal government. The latest manifestation of public policy is expressed in the Helium Privatization Act of 1996 (1996 12 Act), which directs that substantially all of the helium accumulated as a result of those earlier policies be sold off by 2015 at prices sufficient to repay the federal government for its outlays associated with the helium program.

The present volume assesses whether the interests of the United States have been well served by the 1996 Act and, in particular, whether selling off the helium reserve has had any adverse effect on U.S. scientific, technical, biomedical, and national security users of helium.

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