personnel

Daniel Rapperport:

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University and Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Cornell University.

Finite element stress analysis, fracture mechanics, fatigue, failure analysis, fire and explosion analysis, biomechanics, mechanical behavior and testing of materials, structural design and analysis.

Eugene Rapperport:

Doctorate in Metallurgy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) with minor in physics and Bachelor of Science in Metallurgy, M.I.T.

Metallurgy, fatigue, structural design and analysis, failure analysis, fire and explosion analysis, mechanical behavior and testing of materials.

Marthinus van Schoor:

Doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) in Systems Engineering, University of Pretoria, South Africa, Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical and Aeronautics, University of Pretoria, Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Applied Mathematics, University of the Orange Free State, South Africa.

Part-time lecturer in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department of M.I.T. Taught advanced courses in structures, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity. Author of numerous peer reviewed articles in structural dynamics, vibration and dampening, fluid dynamics and thermodynamics. Principle engineer and program manager on many DOD and NASA projects. Areas of competency include: Computational fluid dynamics, structural analysis, vibration analysis, finite element stress analysis.

Prof. Jeffrey Eischen:

Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University and Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, U.C.L.A.

Dr. Eischen is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina State University. Current areas of research: Linear and nonlinear finite element analysis, multi-body kinematics, dynamics and control, stress analysis of microelectronic devices. He has published over 48 refereed journal articles. Courses he teaches include Mechanics of Solids, Strength of Mechanical Components, Machine Component Design, Fracture Mechanics, Advanced Computational Methods in Nonlinear Structural Dynamics, Advanced Machine Design I and II. Areas of competency: Fracture mechanics, fatigue, finite element stress analysis, failure analysis, structural design and analysis, mechanical behavior and testing of materials.

Michael Casey:

Doctorate in Metallurgy, Columbia University, Master of Science in Materials Science, Columbia University, Bachelor of Science in Engineering Chemistry (Cum Laude), State University of New York.

Areas of competency include metallurgical failure analysis, mechanical properties of materials, destructive and nondestructive materials testing, fatigue, fracture, impact, creep and stress corrosion cracking.

Jean Bigoney:

Doctorate in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Bachelor of Science in Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Areas of research include corrosion fatigue crack growth in titanium and steels for offshore applications. Dr. Bigoney has authored or co-authored several chapters in metallurgical reference works including:

Fatigue Crack Growth of Titanium Alloys, ASM Handbook Vol. 19: Fatigue and Fracture, A.C. Ruffin, ed., ASM International, Metals Park, OH, 1966

Fatigue Crack Propagation in Titanium Alloys, Chapter 8 in Handbook of Fatigue Crack Propagation in Metallic Structures, A. Carpinteri, ed., Elsevier Science B.V., The Netherlands, 1994

Surface Performance of Titanium, J.K. Gregory, H.J. Rack, D. Eylon, eds, TMS, Warrendale, PA, 1997.

Areas of competency include failure analysis, fatigue, fracture mechanics and stress corrosion cracking.

William Cruice:

Master of Science Chemistry, St John’s University, Bachelor of Arts in English (Magna cum Laude) and Bachelor of Science in Chemistry (Magna cum Laude), St. John’s University.

Areas of competency include gases, liquids, solids, mists, dusts, detonation, deflagration, thermal explosion, pyrophoricity, flammability, flame suppression, gas explosions, dust explosions, thermodynamics, kinetics, blast analysis, protective structure, and process controls. Publications include Explosions, Section 1 Chapter 6, The Fire Protection Handbook, Eighteenth Edition, 1997, National Fire Protection Association.

Robert Zalosh:

Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering, Northeastern University, Master of Science in Mechanical and Aerospace Sciences, University of Rochester and Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, Cooper Union.

Professor, Fire Protection Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts. Principal investigator on research projects involving special fire and explosion hazards and protection methods. Current research involves gas dispersion modeling and testing, and modeling the response of special automatic fire detectors for use in tunnels. Selected book publications include:

Industrial Fire Protection Engineering, John Wiley & Sons, March 2003

Explosion Protection chapter in Society of Fire Protection Engineers Handbook of Fire Protection Engineering; 1 st Ed, 1988, 2 nd Ed, 1996, 3 rd Ed, 2002

Explosions chapter in Fire Protection Handbook, National Fire Protection Association, January 2003.

Leo Casey:

Science Doctorate in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (GPA 5.0/5.0), Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honors), University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Areas of competency include power engineering, power electronics, analog and digital circuit design, system and control design with analog and microprocessor based implementation as well as materials and reliability. Dr. Casey also has a strong background in electro-mechanics and materials/device physics, particularly as related to power and energy. He is the Chief Technology Officer of SatCon Technology Corporation, an advanced electronics company focused on Grid Support, Hybrid Electronic Vehicles and Alternative Energy serving the commercial and defense markets. Dr. Casey taught a variety of undergraduate courses at Massachusetts Institute of Technology including basic circuit theory, statistical mechanics, electro-magnetics, semiconductor device physics, transistor amplifier design and graduate classes in Power Electronics and Advanced Circuit Design Techniques. He has received numerous awards including the Goodfellow Prize for top Engineering Student, University of Auckland (1980), Fulbright Scholarship (1984), the MIT Electrical Engineering Department F.C. Hennie Teaching award (1984) and he was appointed MIT Department Instructor in Electrical Engineering (1985).

Prof. Graham Candler:

Doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering (Honors), McGill University:

Dr. Candler is Professor of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota, and is an expert in high-temperature chemically reacting flows with application to re-entry aerodynamics, spacecraft heat shield design, low-density flows, high-temperature gas physics, high altitude gas-surface interaction modeling, spacecraft contamination by thruster plumes, surface outgassing and microscale gas flows. He is the author of over one hundred papers on these topics, and his research is funded by numerous government agencies including the NASA Ames, Langley, and Glenn Research Centers, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, and the National Science Foundation. Dr. Candler was awarded the Balhuaus Prize for the best Ph.D. Thesis in the Stanford University Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. Current areas of research include computational fluid dynamics of reacting flows, high temperature gas dynamics, re-entry and hypersonic aerodynamics, thermochemical nonequilibrium flows, and numerical simulation of turbulent reacting flows.

Areas of expertise include combustion chemistry, thermal decomposition of materials, fire dynamics, smoldering combustion, flame spread, smoke production and explosions.