Ron Adams

Ronald B. (Ron) Adams is Global Portfolio Manager - Petroleum, with Sulzer Pumps in Houston, TX. He works with product development on new product definition and provides global product support. He has been with Sulzer since 1991 and has held various sales, marketing, and alliance management positions. Previously, he was with Ingersoll-Rand for over 18 years in pumps and hyperpressure equipment businesses.

He received his BS degree (Mechanical Engineering Technology, 1974) from Southern Technical Institute (summa cum laude) and studied toward his MBA at Georgia State University. He is a member of the ISO 13709 / API 610 Joint Working Group, API 676, and API 685 subcommittees.

Henri Azibert

Henri V. Azibert is the Chief Engineer of the Fluid Sealing Division of the A.W. Chesterton Company, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. He is responsible for the design and development of mechanical seals and related products. He has 22 patents granted on mechanical seal designs and improvements. He has lectured extensively to maintenance engineers all over the world.

Mr. Azibert received a B.A. degree (Political Science) from the University of Massachusetts, a Jurisprudence Doctor degree from Boston College, and an M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Northeastern University. Mr. Azibert maintains his standing in the Massachusetts Bar. He is a member of STLE, a member of the API 682 Task force, and the Chairman of the Standardization Task Group for the Fluid Sealing Association.

Jim Blanding

Dr. James M. (Jim) Blanding is a Senior Consultant in the Engineering Mechanics Group in the DuPont Company, in Houston, Texas. His consulting primarily involves plunger and plunger/hydraulic diaphragm pumps and compressors in process and metering applications. In these and related process systems, Dr. Blanding specializes in diagnostic measurements, online remote condition monitoring, and performance analysis. To complement this experimental work, he also performs detailed computational modeling of pump and compressor performance, rapid transients in process gas and control systems, and pressure pulsation.

Dr. Blanding received B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical Engineering) from Virginia Tech before joining Union Carbide in 1976 as a Consultant in acoustics. He returned to Virginia Tech in 1978 for a Ph.D., as instructor on the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering teaching Mechanical Vibrations and other undergraduate courses. Dr. Blanding joined DuPont in 1981.

Simon Bradshaw

Simon Bradshaw is the Global API Product Development Manager for ITT Goulds Pumps, in Seneca Falls NY.  His responsibilities include the design and development of new products and processes for the oil and gas industry. Prior to joining ITT Goulds, he worked for both Sulzer Pumps and Weir Pumps, where he held various positions of engineering and contractual responsibility.  Additionally he has supported the Hydraulic Institute in the development of pump standards and best practice guides.

Mr. Bradshaw has accumulated 24 years in the pump industry.  He attributes this to having never exhausted the fun inherent in moving fluid between two improbable locations.  He holds a BEng (Hons) degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Heriot Watt University, is a registered Chartered Engineer in the UK and a member of the Institute of Engineering Designers.

Morg Bruck

Gordon Buck

Ronald Carlson

Dara Childs

Dr. Dara W. Childs has been Director of the Turbomachinery Laboratory since 1984 and holds the Leland T. Jordan Chair in Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees (Civil Engineering, 1961, 1962) from Oklahoma State University, and his Ph.D. (Engineering Mechanics, 1968) from the University of
Texas. He was named an ASME Fellow in 1990, and received ASMEs Henry R. Worthington Medal in 1991.

Dr. Childs' expertise is in dynamics and vibrations, with an emphasis in rotordynamics. He has conducted research and engineering projects for NASA, DOD, and private firms. Current research includes: high-pressure testing honeycomb and hole-pattern gas damper seals; testing high-pressure laminar oil seals; force measurements in magnetic bearings using fiber-optic strain gauges.

Dr. Childs has authored numerous reviewed publications related to rotordynamics and vibrations, and the book, Turbomachinery Rotordynamics. He is presently completing a new dynamics book entitled, Dynamics in Engineering Practice.

David E. Earl

David E. (Dave) Earl is a Staff Rotating Equipment Engineer for ConocoPhillips presently supporting the Alpine and Kuparuk fields on the North Slope of Alaska. He has accumulated over 30 years experience in the Arctic oil industry, working in Operations, Engineering and Project Design and Construction.

Mr. Earl received his B.S.M.E from California Polytechnic State University and holds Professional Engineering licenses in the State of Alaska and the Province of Alberta.

Matthew Gaydon

Kerry Gunn

Kerry F. Gunn is currently a Principal Engineer with Lyondell Houston Refining. He is assigned to the FCCU unit where he provides reliability engineering support including machinery repair; troubleshooting of rotating equipment; and identifying reliability improvement projects for rotating equipment. Prior to his current position, Mr. Gunn worked for 14 years at Sterling Chemicals as a Rotating Equipment technologist and five years at Quantum Chemicals Houston Plant as an Area Maintenance Engineer and Project Engineer. Previously, Mr. Gunn was a Senior Research Engineer at Exxon Research and Engineering for nine years. He participated in design, construction, and operation of synthetic fuels pilot plants.

Mr. Gunn received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1975) from Oklahoma University and an M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1977) from Purdue University. He is a member of ASME and the Vibration Institute, category II certified.

Bob Heyl

Robert F. (Bob) Heyl is a Senior Staff Engineer with Chevron Energy Technology Company in Houston Texas.He is also the team leader of the Chevron Machinery and Mechanical Systems Technology Network, coordinator of the Rotating Equipment Facilities Engineering Organizational Community, and leader of the Mechanical Equipment RoundTable attended by Chevron's mechanical equipment personnel from around the world. Mr Heyl has been with Texaco and Chevron for 36 years and is responsible for the design and troubleshooting of mechanical equipment internationally. His responsibilities include equipment application, specification, selection, installation, troubleshooting, and the development and promotion of new technologies throughout the company.

Mr. Heyl has a B.S. degree (Engineering Science) from Hofstra University and attended Columbia University. He is a Steering Committee member of the API Subcommittee on Mechanical Equipment, and is Chairman of API 674, API 675, and API 676 Task Forces. He has participated on API 610, API 614, and API 682.

Mike Huebner

Michael B. Huebner is a Staff Engineer in the Flow Solutions Division of Flowserve Corporation, in Deer Park, Texas. He has more than 20 years' experience in the design of mechanical seals, centrifugal and positive displacement pumps, and fluid conditioning equipment. For Flowserve, he has served in design, testing, and application functions in both the U.S. and Europe.

Mr. Huebner received his B.S. degree (Engineering Technology) from Texas A&M University. He is a member of the International Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee and the API 682 Task Force.

Jacek M. Jarosz

Mike Johnson

Michael W. Johnson is a Pipe Stress Engineer in the Reliability Engineering Department of Reliant Energy, in Houston, Texas. He has more than 20 years of experience and is responsible for high energy piping and ISI programs at Reliant.

Mr. Johnson graduated from the University of North Dakota (1980) and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

John Joseph

John P. Joseph II is an independent consultant with Rotating Equipment Systems Technical Associates, in Houston, Texas. He was previously with BP Amoco where he provided technical and maintenance support for rotating equipment systems to existing asset organizations in BP Amoco, and to Project Management on new projects. Prior to that, Mr. Joseph was with the Amoco Petroleum Products Refinery, in Texas City, Texas. He supervised the rotating equipment engineers and the rotating equipment specialists for the refinery. Mr. Joseph spent six and one half years as Superintendent of Central Shops and three years in Amoco's Refining and Transportation Engineering Department, in Chicago, Illinois. Previous assignments at the Amoco Texas City refinery also included the Rotating Equipment Consulting Group, the Project Engineering Group, and as a Maintenance Engineer on the Hydrocracking Unit.

Mr. Joseph received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1972) from the University of Texas at El Paso.

Bill Litton

William R. (Bill) Litton is the Pump Initiative Manager with Magellan Midstream Partners, LP, in Tulsa , Oklahoma . He is an experienced professional engineer with 25 years of experience in the petroleum industry. He has ability and experience in mechanical equipment, prime mover economics, power optimization, and pipeline system hydraulics.

Mr. Litton also has project engineering ability and experience in handling pipeline expansions, pipeline pump stations, refineries, fractionators, gas and processing facilities and crude oil, refined products, NH3, and propane terminals (brine cavern and excavated caverns). He also has experience in maintaining mechanical equipment company-wide to provide reliable and economical service. This includes rerating of pumps and pump modifications to reduce resonant and nonresonant vibration levels.

Mr. Litton has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1979) from Kansas State University and a B.S. degree (Mathematics, 1978) from Emporia State University . He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Oklahoma.

Bill Marscher

William D. Marscher (Bill) is President & Technical Director of MSI. He has spent his career of over 30 years involved in the design, development, and troubleshooting of compressors, turbines, pumps, and other turbomachinery. His capabilities and experience include finite element analysis, rotordynamic analysis, vibration testing, predictive maintenance, and mechanical design, including the design of advanced (including magnetic) bearings and seals. In the experimental area, Mr. Marscher is known for his approach of combining advanced test techniques with computer analysis to solve mechanical problems in rotating machinery. His innovative vibration test procedures won the $5000 Dresser Creativity Award in 1986. His turbine blade rub analysis method won the ASLE Hodson Award in 1983.

Mr. Marscher also pioneered the use of finite element analysis in the prediction of casing stress and split flange leakage, and the mechanical effects of piping nozzle loads. He has developed computer programs which automatically set up finite element models for complicated centrifugal machinery components, such as double suction casings, impellers, and entire vertical pump assemblies. Mr. Marscher is the originator of the "time-averaged pulse" (TAPTM) vibration test procedure, which has led to the solution of pump, compressor, turbine, and motor problems in over 200 Power Plant, Water, Wastewater, Chemical, and API installations.

For ASME, Mr. Marscher retired this year as Chair of the Predictive Maintenance committee, was Organizing and Presiding Chair of the 1995 ASME/STLE Tribology Conference, and was Organizing and Presiding Chair of the 1993 RoCon rotating machinery conference. For the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers STLE he is a Fellow, was the 1998/1999 President, is past Chair of their Annual Meeting, Awards, and Wear Committees, is Associate Editor of the Tribology Transactions and Tribology & Lube Technology magazines, was Chair of the Oil Monitoring Analysis committee, and Chair of the Seals Technical Committee. For ASTM, for 25 years he has been on the standards voting committees for wear and erosion, and for metal fatigue. Currently, he is a voting member of ISO/ANSI standards committee S2/TC108, which creates all new and revised ISO specifications concerning reliability and vibration/ acoustic monitoring for compressors, turbines, pumps, and other rotating machinery.

Mike Moore

Michael (Mike) Moore is the Director of Global Oil & Gas Marketing for the Colfax Corporation, in Ontario, Canada. The first 16 years of his career were spent with the Flowserve Pump Division located in Brantford, Ontario, working with a wide variety of centrifugal and positive displacement pump types. His work experience with Flowserve spanned the engineering, field service, project management, and new product development departments. The last five years of Mr. Moore's career have been spent working with Colfax, initially as their Senior Multiphase Engineer and then as Colfax Americas' Crude Oil Product Marketing Specialist prior to taking on his current responsibilities. For the last five years, Mr. Moore has served as the task force secretary for API 676 - positive displacement pumps, rotary.

Mr. Moore received his education in Mechanical Engineering at McMaster University and the Mohawk Technical Institute, both located in Hamilton, Ontario.

Jerry Morrison

Dr. Gerald L. (Jerry) Morrison is the Nelson-Jackson Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. degree from Oklahoma State University (1977). He is a member of various societies including: ASEE, Associate Fellow in AIAA, Fellow in ASME, Pi Tau Sigma, and Tau Beta Pi.

Dr. Morrison's research interests are in turbulent fluid flow and instrumentation. His research in coherent structures in turbulent flows has enabled him to develop expertise in hot wire anemometry, laser Doppler anemometry, acoustic measurements, and spectral analysis, and in other conditional sampling techniques.

Dr. Morrison manages a program to study labyrinth seals. This includes empirical and analytical schemes to predict leakage rates with experimental verification of the two schemes, and the use of a 3-D laser Doppler anemometer to measure the flowfield inside an actual seal. He is also active in the research area of flow fields inside centrifugal pumps and turbochargers.

Jim Penhale graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering.  In his 18 year career, he has worked for some widely known pump OEMs including Union Pumps, Schlumberger-REDA Pumps, Sulzer Pumps, and Flowserve as an aftermarket maintenance and reliability engineer, with postings in Canada, the US, and Singapore.  As well, he has given training sessions, helped set up OEM shops, and start up and commission equipment in both Russia and Indonesia. 

More recently he has moved to being an end-user, with work as a rotating equipment reliability engineer in refineries and in pipeline companies.  He is an accredited Professional Engineer in the province of Alberta, Canada.  He is currently with Enterprise Products based in Midland, TX.

Gene Sabini

Eugene P. (Gene) Sabini is the Director of Research for the Industrial Process Group of ITT Industries, in Seneca Falls, New York. He is responsible for applied research and hydraulic design of all new products and field re-rates. Other responsibilities include testing, FEA, CFD, rotordynamics, rapid prototyping, and condition monitoring.

Mr. Sabini is the recipient of the 2007 ITT Industries' Engineered for Life Award - for Lifetime Achievement in Hydraulic Design Expertise and Innovation.

Mr. Sabini has 39 years of experience in the pumping industry including design and development of many centrifugal pumps for the chemical, API, power utilities, and municipal industries. He spent 25 years with Worthington Pump designing, engineering, and testing custom centrifugal pumps from both a mechanical and hydraulic standpoint. He has been a member of the Pump Symposium Committee since 1999.

Mr. Sabini has written numerous papers and holds twelve patents. He received a BSME (1968) AND M.S. (1975) degree from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Bruno Schiavello

Bruno Schiavello has been Director for Fluid Dynamics at Flowserve Pump Division, Applied Technology Department, in Phillipsburg, New Jersey, since 2000, and previously served in the same position with Ingersoll Dresser Pump Company. He started in the R&D Department of Worthington Nord (Italy), joined Central R&D of Worthington, McGraw Edison Company, and then Dresser Pump Division.

Mr. Schiavello was co-winner of the H. Worthington European Technical Award in 1979. He has written several papers and lectured at seminars in the area of pump recirculation, cavitation, and two-phase flow. He is a member of ASME, has received the ASME 2006 Fluid Machinery Design Award, and has served on the International Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee since 1983.

Mr. Schiavello received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1974) from the University of Rome, and an M.S. degree (Fluid Dynamics, 1975) from Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics.

Joe Silvaggio

Joseph A. (Joe) Silvaggio, Jr., is Manager, Pump Projects and Engineering at Siemens Demag Delaval Turbomachinery, Inc., Trenton, New Jersey, and has been with them since 1968. His past experience at Demag Delaval includes the areas of aerodynamics, flow analysis, seal development, design of centrifugal compressor stage elements, centrifugal pump design and flow analysis, boiler feedpump design and analysis, and testing of steam turbines.

Mr. Silvaggio is a member of Sigma Tau and Pi Tau Sigma. He is also an active member of ASME and has held several offices in the Trenton, New Jersey, section. At present, he is on two ASME Performance Test Code Committees and is a member of the Board on Performance Test Codes.

Mr. Silvaggio holds both B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Pennsylvania. He has written and coauthored numerous technical publications, and is a member of the International Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee.

Leslie Thilagan

Leslie Thilagan is a Technical Advisor at KBR Houston.Texas. He has over 30 years experience in design, hydraulics, applications including evaluation and order execution, testing, trouble shooting, technical sales and management in the pump manufacturing industry both in UK and in USA. His experience includes working at David Brown-Bingham pumps in Sheffied.UK (20 years), David Brown-Union Pumps, Rhurpumpen, and Sulzer Pumps in Houston Texas.

He obtained his degree in mechanical and production engineering at University of Huddersfied UK He is a registered professional engineer with State of Texas. He was a Charted Mechanical Engineer with Institution of Mechanical Engineers in UK and European Engineer with FENAI Belgium.

Bruce Weber

Bruce Weber is responsible for the technical support of the mechanical seal division at the Champion Group in Houston, Texas. In this capacity, he supports customers during preliminary selection, design, installation and operation of sealing systems. Mr. Weber's other major role with Champion is customer training. In addition to mechanical seals, this training includes rotating equipment; selection, operation and other associated support systems.

Previously, Mr. Weber was the Operations Manager for Best Equipment. His duties included supervision of the pump repair facility, consulting with clients concerning pumping systems, and pump troubleshooting. Prior to that, Mr. Weber was associated with Koch Hydrocarbon, in Medford, Oklahoma, for 18 years. His responsibility as Maintenance Supervisor included 10,000 miles of pipelines that employed 2300 pumps. He also served as a rotating equipment consultant for Koch's four Gas Liquid fractionators.

Mr. Weber is currently enrolled at the University of Houston, working toward a B.S. degree.

Dan Wood

Daniel W. (Dan) Wood is a Pump Consultant with the DuPont Company, in Wilmington, Delaware. He provides pump, mechanical seal, and pumping system technical support throughout DuPont. Mr. Wood participates on committees within the Hydraulic Institute and is a voting member for 3-A Sanitary Standards for ANSI pumps. He was previously employed for 15 years in various engineering and training roles at Flowserve.

Mr. Wood graduated from the University of Cincinnati (BSME, 1991). He is a Level III Vibration Analyst certified through Technical Associates of Charlotte.

Chris Zielewski

Chris Zielewski is a Senior Staff Engineer with ExxonMobil Chemical currently working as a machinery group leader in the Baton Rouge Refinery. His past assignments have included project engineering and energy conservation. For the last 25 years he has worked as a machinery engineer in Olefins Cracking Units, Utilities, Cat and Hydro Cracking Units, and Synthetic Rubber Units. His area of expertise ranges from small metering pumps, thru ANSI, UMD, API pumps, vessel mixers and CT Fans to reciprocating compressors, integral gas engines, 500-20,000 HP range of Centrifugal Compressor and gas turbines in both mechanical drive and Cogen applications.

Involvement in machinery includes hands on analysis and troubleshooting of approximately 3,000 failure events and incident investigations, participation on TAMU Pump Symposia panels, and guest lectures a University-level senior design class. His community activities include science and math tutoring in high schools, motivational talks on technical careers in middle schools, presentations of hands on petrochemical industry topics to local elementary schools, and Science Fair judging.

Current professional interests include rolling element bearing applications in severe service, fluid sealing environmental controls and component life extension thru the use of coatings and performance monitoring. Mr. Zielewski graduated from Rutgers University with a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. While there he was a member of the engineering honor societies, Tau Beta Pi, and Pi Tau Sigma.