Pump Advisory Committee

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 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.

Paul Behnke

Paul W. Behnke is Senior Principal Engineer - Manager of Rotating Equipment, Bechtel, in Frederick, Maryland. He is responsible for technical aspects of rotating equipment procurement, installation, startup, and operations. In past positions, he has successfully led a multiplant business unit operations through dramatic growth and business operations restructuring; led the consolidation and restructuring of selected prejoint venture assets; improved customer service, safety, and asset management by aggressively implementing ISO 9001 quality systems and Six Sigma processes; developed new products using concurrent engineering teams and product platform strategies. Mr. Behnke has over 28 years' of rotating equipment engineering experience in the electric power, water resources, oil production, hydrocarbon processing, and general industry market segments.

Mr. Behnke holds a BSME from Rutgers University and an MBA from Lehigh University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey and in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He has been awarded two U.S. patents.

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.

Dennis Bowman

Dennis G. Bowman is a Consulting Engineer with Alfred Conhagen, Inc., in La Marque, Texas, a manufacturer and refurbisher of large rotating equipment, including pumps, serving the power utility and oil refining and pipeline industries. He has 29 years of industrial experience in centrifugal pump design, analysis, and troubleshooting. Mr. Bowman has designed pumps for nearly all safety-related services in PWR type nuclear power stations and performed the only full scale, full speed, full load flow visualization study of cavitation (8000 bhp per stage) boiler feed pumps.

Mr. Bowman has a BSME degree from California State University, Pomona, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of California. He has authored technical papers for ASMEs Fluid Machinery Division and Texas A&Ms International Pump Users Symposium, and has been granted patents for unique pressure boundary joint designs and fabrication techniques.

Morg Bruck

Morgan M. (Morg) Bruck currently works for Marathon Petroleum Company in the Engineering Standards and Technical Support group that supports Marathon Pipeline and Marathon Ashland Petroleum's Light Products and Asphalt Terminals.

He has worked with the specification, installation, and maintenance of rotating equipment as an engineer since January 1970. Mr. Bruck has had responsibility for the specification, installation, and maintenance of rotating equipment since 1985. He is also a member of the committees for API Standards 610, 674, 676, and 682.

Morg is a graduate of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (BSME 1969).

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.

Mark Cooper is a Senior Mechanical Engineer for Lauren Engineers & Constructors in Irving, Texas. His primary focus has been machinery reliability, root cause failure analysis, and machinery design improvements for polymer, chemical, and olefins units. Prior to joining Lauren, Mark worked in the central mechanical engineering department for Lyondell Chemical where he provided global machinery engineering support for the operation, maintenance and troubleshooting of rotating equipment.

Mr. Cooper received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Lamar University in (1991).

Mike Cugal

Michael (Mike) Cugal is a Chief Hydraulic Engineer at Paco Pumps, Grundfos CBS, Inc. He provides hydraulic design expertise to product development, testing, sales, and service departments. He has worked in the pump industry since 1988 in design, research and development, testing, applications and selection, and field trouble-shooting roles. He authored several hydraulic design/CFD related papers for the ASME and other technical conferences.

Mr. Cugal received his BSME degree from California Polytechnic University at Pomona. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of California.

Kevin Dostal

Kevin Dostal is a Senior Reliability Engineer for Enterprise Products. His primary responsibility is improving the reliability of pumps and drivers on a Midwest NGL pipeline by implementing preventive and predictive maintenance programs and providing guidelines for the repair and purchase of equipment. Kevin also provides a support role to corporate reliability initiatives by managing the vibration and oil analysis programs and reviewing specifications for new equipment purchases.

Kevin has worked in Reliability and Maintenance in the refining, petrochemical, power, and pipeline industries. His experience encompasses pump seal reliability improvement programs, turbomachinery overhaul and upgrades, and preventive and predictive maintenance program implementation. Mr. Dostal received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University (1995).

Cesar Fernandez

CORRESPONDING MEMBER

Cesar L. Fernandez is a Senior Staff Engineer in the Corporate Engineering Office in REPSOL YPF, in Madrid, Spain. He is the leader of the rotating machinery group, and his group is responsible for the specification, selection testing, installation, commissioning and start-up of all the rotating equipment for REPSOL investment projects in refineries, petrochemical and LNG plants. Other responsibilities include troubleshooting rotating machinery, the promotion of new technologies throughout the company, reliability engineering, and the writing company machinery standards.

Mr. Fernandez holds a M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Oviedo, Spain. He is a member of the American Petroleum Institute Sub-committee of Mechanical Equipment, and Chairman of the ISO TC118 SC1 (Process compressors). He is a member of Spanish technical committees for machinery and ATEX for non-electrical equipment (ATEX is the European Directive for equipment installed in hazardous areas). He has served in several ISO and API working groups for pumps, mechanical seals and compressors.

Ralf Gerdes

CORRESPONDING MEMBER

Ralf Gerdes is Head of Product Development and Engineering of Sulzer Pumps. He is located in Winterthur, Switzerland. He has been with Sulzer since 2006 and had various positions in the turbo machinery industry.

Previously, he was with Alstom and responsible for the global development of steam turbines. Ralf Gerdes received his M.S degree (Turbo machinery, 1990) and his Ph.D. (Engineering Mechanics, 1995) from the technical University of Braunschweig (Germany).

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.

Tom Hess

Thomas D. Hess Jr. is a Rotating Machinery Consultant for DuPont located in Wilmington, Delaware. He is responsible for plant and capital project support and standards development for DuPont. Prior to joining DuPont, Mr. Hess worked for Valero at the Delaware City Refinery, ARCO Chemical in the central engineering group providing consulting services for ARCO facilities world-wide, and Bently Nevada as a field vibration analyst.

Mr. Hess has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Villanova University. He is also a member of ASME, the Vibration Institute, and is a Registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

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.

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.

John J. Kavalam is the Director of Engineering at Blackmer, a division of the Dover Pump Solutions Group (PSG). In this position, Mr. Kavalam is responsible for New Products Development, Sustaining Engineering and Engineering Standards. Prior to joining Blackmer, he worked for thirteen years at Sundyne Corporation, Colorado in various management capacities including Engineering, Global Operations and Quality.

He is a member on the API676 Task Force and has been with the International Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee since 2005.

Mr. Kavalam received his BSME from NIT, Surathkal, India; his MSME from the University of Colorado, Boulder and MBA from the Daniels College of Business, Denver, Colorado.

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.

Tom Maceyka

Thomas Maceyka, P.E. (Tom) is the Director of Product Development at Sundyne Corporation, Arvada Colorado. Mr. Maceyka has held numerous positions at Sundyne that include Sundyne Pump Engineering Manager, Sundyne Compressor Product Development Manager, and Sundyne Compressor Business Unit Manager. His areas of expertise have focused on pump inducer improvements, compressor aerodynamics and rotordynamics.

Mr. Maceyka was a lecturer at the 14th International Pump Users Symposium and a Tutorial Speaker at the 29th Turbomachinery Symposium, and has participated on API Task Forces for API 610, 682 and 617.

Mr. Maceyka received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1978) from the University of Colorado, and his M.S. (Engineering Management, 2002) also from the University of Colorado.

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.

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.

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.

John Silcott

John W. Silcott is an Engineering Associate with Celanese Ltd. working in the corporate Center of Excellence for rotating equipment and is located in Houston, Texas. His primary responsibilities are rotating equipment reliability and technical support, to include project review and support, consulting, problem solving, vibration analysis, lubrication, predictive/preventive maintenance programs and Best Practices. He worked for Dow Chemical from 1970 to 1974 and joined Celanese in 1974 where he has worked in technical and supervisory roles associated with rotating equipment.

Mr. Silcott received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1970) from New Mexico State University. He is a member of the Vibration Institute, ASME, Chairperson of the Advisory Committee for the Industrial Maintenance Technology program at Texas State Technical College, and a member of the International Pump Users Symposium Advisory Committee since 1987.

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.

John Stokes

John B. Stokes is a Machinery Engineer for Shell Chemical LP in Deer Park, Texas. In his current assignment, he provides technical support for the operation and maintenance of the machinery in the two Olefins Plants.

Mr. Stokes received a BSME from Louisiana Tech University in 1978. He is a member of ASME and is a registered Professional Engineer in the States of Louisiana and Texas.

Dewey Stump

Dewey W. Stump is employed with Frametome ANP, Inc., in Lunchburg, Virginia. He retired from Duke Power Company where he was a Senior Production Specialist. He was assigned to the McGuire Nuclear Station in the Maintenance Execution Support group.

His duties at Duke included technical oversight, parts specification, and repair for rotating equipment maintenance activities. He was responsible for reactor coolant pumps and motors, multistage pumps, compressors, and general pump and motor maintenance. He was responsible for root-cause analysis, mechanical seal specifications, and failure analysis.

Prior to joining Duke Power Company, Mr. Stump worked as an assistant to the plant Maintenance Manager at a large brewing company. He developed and set up the preventive maintenance program and initiated the company's lubrication and spare parts program. He is a member of the Pumps & Systems Magazine User Advisory Team.

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.

Joseph Thorp

Joseph M. Thorp is an Engineering Specialist within the Technical Services Department of Aramco Services Company (ASC), in Houston, Texas. He has provided technical support for Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) projects in Europe and North America, along with supporting field activities during interim assignments in Saudi Arabia as part of the Consulting Services Department. Mr. Thorp is Saudi Aramco's designated representative to the American Petroleum Institute Subcommittee on Mechanical Equipment that includes Vice Chairmanship of API 610 (Centrifugal Pump) and Chairmanship of API 682 (Seals). He is the API mechanical equipment representative to the International Standards Coordinating Committee who interfaces with ISO, headquartered in Europe. Prior to joining ASC, he worked with Phillips Petroleum Company.

Mr. Thorp holds a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Michigan State University and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. Mr. Thorp is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

Roger Turley

Roger S. Turley is the Director of Product Management at Flowserve Corporation, Flowserve Pump Division, and is based in Dayton, Ohio. He has 16 years' experience in the pump industry.

Mr. Turley received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Brigham Young University. He has received patents for innovations in pump design and has published several articles in leading industry publications.

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.

Tom Will

Thomas P. (Tom) Will, Jr., is a Senior Staff Engineer at the ConocoPhillips Bayway Refinery, in Linden, New Jersey. He is responsible for maintenance support, troubleshooting, and reliability improvement of rotating equipment from small pumps to major turbomachinery.

Prior positions include Executive Energy Consultant with Conservation Services Corporation of Denville, New Jersey (1986 to 1987), and Senior Staff Engineer with Exxon Research & Engineering Company in Florham Park, New Jersey (1970 to 1986). With CSC, Mr. Will had responsibility for energy audits and application of energy conservation equipment to motor-driven machinery in commercial, institutional, and industrial facilities. With Exxon, he had responsibility for research, design, selection, commissioning, and operation of process machinery with long-term field assignments in the United States, Venezuela, Libya, and Thailand.

Mr. Will is a member of ASME, AEE, editorial quality judge for Plant Engineering magazine, and a registered Professional Engineer in the State of New Jersey.

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.