Turbo Advisory Committee
Members of the Advisory Committee, who provide overall guidance, are recognized leaders in the turbomachinery community.
Kazim Akhtar
| Kazim Akhtar is the Director for Mechanical Engineering of CB&I in Houston, Texas. His department is involved in the specification, design, selection, shop test acceptance, and startup coordination of rotating and static (Heat transfer, Vessels and Material handling) equipment for major refinery, petrochemical, and oil and gas projects. Mr. Akhtar received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Texas A&M University and an M.S. degree (Industrial Engineering, Management) from the University of Houston. He is an active member of API, AICHE, ASME, a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas, and a member of the Turbo machinery Symposium Advisory Committee. |
 | Bruce Bayless works for Valero Energy Corporation in San Antonio, Texas. He has been a member of the advisory committee since 2004. |
Ken Beckman
| Kenneth O. (Ken) Beckman is Chief Engineer of the Power Transmission Division of Lufkin Industries, Inc., in Lufkin, Texas. Since college graduation he has been in gear engineering with Lufkin Industries. He previously served as a Design Engineer in high-speed gearing, and in 1985 he was promoted to Chief Engineer responsible for the engineering on all gears including low-speed through high-speed, marine, and repair. Mr. Beckman has spent a considerable portion of his time working with users and service departments to solve gearing problems. The Quality Assurance Department and the Test Stand area were added to his responsibilities in 1998. Mr. Beckman received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1972) from Montana State University. He is an active member of AGMA and API. He is currently on the Advisory Board for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. |
Gampa Bhat
| Gampa I. Bhat is Chief Machinery Engineer for ExxonMobil Chemical Company, in Baytown, Texas. As Lead Specialist, he acts as the focal point for the ExxonMobil Chemical Worldwide Machinery Network and is involved with the development of machinery strategies for new and upgrade projects. He is also involved in the selection, operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of machinery systems. Before joining ExxonMobil, he worked as a Machinery Application Engineer for Union Carbide Corporation, in Charleston, West Virginia. Mr. Bhat received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Karnataka University in India, and an M.S. degree from West Virginia College of Graduate Studies. He is a member of ASME. |
Meherwan Boyce
| Meherwan P. Boyce is Chairman of The Boyce Consultancy Group, LLC, in Houston, Texas. He has 40 years of experience in the turbomachinery field, with 30 years in the design of compressors and turbines. His 15 years in academia include being Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University, and Founder of the Turbomachinery Laboratories and the Turbomachinery Symposium. Dr. Boyce has authored more than 130 technical publications and several books, including Gas Turbine Engineering Handbook, Cogeneration & Combined Cycle Power Plants, and Centrifugal Compressors, A Basic Guide. He has taught over 150 short courses globally attended by over 4500 students representing 400 companies, and is a Consultant to the aerospace, petrochemical, and utility industries. Dr. Boyce received a B.S. and M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and the State University of New York, respectively, and a Ph.D. degree (1969) from the University of Oklahoma. |
Dara Childs
| Dara W. Childs, Ph.D., P.E., 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 ASME Fellow Member 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. |
Tim Christ
| Timothy J. (Tim) Christ is a Mechanical Engineering Associate at The Dow Chemical Company, in Freeport, Texas. In this role, he assists rotating equipment engineers in the Maintenance Technical Services group as well as Reliability and Maintenance Engineers in the various businesses regarding turbomachinery issues. Mr. Christ spent most of his career in the Critical Mechanical Equipment group. However, he recently acted as a Maintenance Representative on a large-scale grass-roots plant constructed in Freeport. He is presently a member of the Dow Global Turbomachinery Technology Resource Network (TRN), which is a network of turbomachinery subject matter experts from various global sites. He was coauthor of a paper for the Twenty-Sixth Turbomachinery Symposium and presented a Case Study at the Thirtieth Turbomachinery Symposium. Mr. Christ has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Texas A&M University (1978). |
Cliff Cook
| Clifford P. (Cliff) Cook retired from Chevron and is President of CVC Engineering, in Houston, Texas. He provides turbomachinery consulting services to the process industries with 42 years' experience. He is a Chevron Fellow, Emeritus, and is Chairman Emeritus and past Vice Chairman of the API Subcommittee on Mechanical Equipment and member of its Steering Committee. He is Chairman of API RP 687 and API SOME Standard Paragraphs, and past Chairman of API 613 and 677. Mr. Cook is a member of API 617, 616, 614, and past member of API 610, 684 Tutorial, and 618. He also serves on the ANSI Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee 67 Subcommittee 6. He has been a member of the Texas A&M Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee since 1993. Mr. Cook has a B.S. degree from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, and an M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Lehigh University. |
Tom Davidson
| Thomas R. (Tom) Davidson is Reliability Manager for BOC Gases at their Clear Lake, Texas, facility. He is responsible for managing all maintenance and reliability activities for the site. He has more than 25 years of experience in the petrochemical industry, in the field of equipment reliability and maintenance management. Mr. Davidson received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1978) from the University of Houston. He is a member of ASME, NSPE, the Vibration Institute, and he serves on the Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee. Mr. Davidson is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. |
Gary Davis
| Gary S. Davis is the Eastern Zone Sales Manager at the Elliott Company in Jeannette, Pennsylvania, and has over twenty eight years of experience working with rotating equipment at Elliott Company. Previous roles include Project Engineering, Lead Project Engineer, Project Manager, Systems Application Engineer and Mgr. Air Separation prior to entering into the sales role in 1995. He is responsible for sales support in the eastern half of the United States for new and rerated turbomachinery. Mr. Davis graduated from Virginia Tech (VPI&SU), Blacksburg, VA in 1979 and holds a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering. |
Michael Drosjack
| Michael J. Drosjack, Ph.D. is a Senior Principal in the Rotating Equipment Department at Shell Global Solutions (US) Inc., in Houston, Texas. He is responsible for providing technical support for rotating and reciprocating machinery to Shell and Shell affiliated companies worldwide, as well as commercial customers. Since joining Shell in 1975, he has had assignments on projects involving specification, evaluation, installation, and startup of machinery along with extensive field troubleshooting, particularly in the area of vibration measurement, vibration analysis, and rotordynamics. Dr. Drosjack received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1970) from Carnegie-Mellon University, and his M.S. (1971) and Ph.D. (1974) degrees (Mechanical Engineering) from The Ohio State University. He is a member of ASME, the Vibration Institute, the Machinery Subcommittee of the Ethylene Products Committee, participates in API task forces, and has been a speaker and panelist for NPRA. He has been a Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee member since 1986. |
Johnny Dugas
| EMERITUS MEMBER John R. (Johnny) Dugas, Jr., is Senior Technical Associate in the P&IP Department of E.I. duPont de Nemours and Company, Inc., in Orange, Texas. Since 1980, he has been assigned to the Technical Department of the ethylene manufacturing facility where he is involved in repair, troubleshooting, redesign, and specification of turbomachinery and other process equipment. He has worked at DuPont since graduating from the University of Southwestern Louisiana with a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1973). Previous activities with DuPont dealt with maintenance and construction of mechanical equipment including assignments with DuPont's Construction and Field Service Divisions. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. Mr. Dugas retired as a TAC member in 2006 and upon retirement was elected to be the first to receive the honorary title of Emeritus Member. |
| Francisco Gonzalez is the Reliability Manager for Enterprise Products. Enterprise Products currently operates machinery over 2.1 MM installed horsepower in Natural Gas and NGL Processing Plants and over 50,000 miles of pipelines transportation various NGLs, and Natural Gas, Crude and Refine Products in the USA. Mr. Gonzalez has over 17 years of experience in Operations and Maintenance of Rotating Equipment, 11 years at Enterprise and 6 years with Amoco Chemical at Texas City. The Reliability Department at Enterprise is primarily responsible for providing technical support to operations and maintenance on all rotating equipment. The Reliability Department provide services to operation and maintenance which include rotating equipment vibration monitoring, aerothermal performance monitoring, troubleshooting, overhaul, performance testing and gas turbine and compressor optimization as well as evaluating short term and long term reliability improvements for all rotating equipment. Enterprise currently operates over 325 gas turbine compressor and pump packages, and over 290 reciprocating compressor packages. Mr. Gonzalez has co authored several technical papers for Turbo Machinery Symposium and ASME Power Gen as well as articles on Improving Reliability in various publications. Mr. Gonzalez graduated from the University of Houston with a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1990. |
Lil Kassie
| Lil Kassie is presently Rotating Equipment Advisor for BP refining. He is located at BPs Whiting, Indiana, refinery where he has worked for 24 years. He has held positions as Rotating Equipment Specialist, Superintendent of the Rotating Equipment and Reliability Engineering Group, and Senior Rotating Equipment Consultant. In his present position, Mr. Kassie is responsible for providing machinery expertise, sharing and implementing equipment practices, and development coaching for improving equipment reliability and plant availability throughout BP. Prior to his tenure at BP, Mr. Kassie worked as Rotating Equipment Superintendent for Energy Cooperative Inc. and as a Field Service Engineer for Ingersoll Rand. He has presented technical papers at various rotating equipment conferences including the Turbomachinery Symposium and Rotating Machinery Users Council. Mr. Kassie holds B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Wisconsin. |
Rainer Kurz
| Rainer Kurz is Manager of Systems Analysis and Field Testing for Solar Turbines Inc., in San Diego, California. His organization is responsible for conducting application studies, gas compressor and gas turbine performance predictions, and site performance testing. He joined Solar Turbines Incorporated in 1993, and has authored more than 70 publications in the field of turbomachinery. Dr. Kurz attended the University of the German Armed Forces, in Hamburg, Germany, where he received the degree of a Dipl.-Ing., and, in 1991, the degree of a Dr.-Ing. He was elected as an ASME Fellow in 2003. |
Mark Kuzdzal
| Mark J. Kuzdzal is the manager of Core Technologies at Dresser-Rand Company, Olean Operations, in Olean, New York. He is responsible for overseeing rotordynamics, materials, welding, solid mechanics, and acoustics disciplines. He has been with the company since 1988. Mr. Kuzdzal's areas of expertise are rotordynamics, bearing performance, field vibration issue resolution, and product/process development. He has coauthored many technical papers and holds two U.S. Patents. Mr. Kuzdzal has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1988) from the State University of New York at Buffalo. |
Steve Locke
| Stephen R. (Steve) Locke is a Senior Consultant with E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, Inc., with 34 years of turbomachinery and rotating equipment experience. He is assigned to DuPont Engineering Technology Rotating Machinery Group, in Old Hickory, Tennessee. Since 1983, Mr. Locke has been an engineering consultant for turbomachinery and process machinery making reliability improvements, machine retrofits, and performance analysis on operating equipment, and helps specify and startup new equipment. During his first 11 years with DuPont, he held plant assignments in the Petrochemical Department providing technical assistance to operations and maintenance and was responsible for startup of several large process compressors and other process equipment. Mr. Locke has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1972) from Purdue University and is a member of ASME. He has presented several papers at the Turbomachinery Symposia, at the University of Virginia ROMAC, and represents DuPont on Texas A&M's Turbomachinery Research Consortium. |
| Cyrus B. Meher-Homji is an Engineering Fellow and Senior Principal Engineer at Bechtel Corporation, in Houston, Texas. He is assigned to the LNG Technology Group and LNG Product Development Center. Mr. Meher-Homji works on the development of new concepts relating to LNG turbomachinery and supports LNG projects. His 27 years of industry experience covers gas turbine and compressor application and design, engine development, and troubleshooting. Mr. Meher-Homji has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Shivaji University, an M.E. degree from Texas A&M University, and an M.B.A. degree from the University of Houston. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas, a Fellow of ASME, life member of AIAA, and is active on several committees of ASME's International Gas Turbine Institute. He has several publications in the area of turbomachinery engineering. |
Marcelo Miranda
| Marcelo Accorsi Miranda is a Turbomachinery Advisor with Petrobras E&P Business Unit of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He has been in the oil and gas business for 28 years. Mr. Miranda is responsible for the technical support to existing machinery operations, as well as for the conceptual design, specification, selection and shop test acceptance of turbomachinery. His background includes comprehensive evaluation of energy and compressions systems, including life cycle analysis and RAM analysis. He is member of the Advisory Committee of the Brazilian Maintenance Association (ABRAMAN) and a member of the Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee. Mr. Miranda received a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and a M.S. degree (Industrial Engineering) from Universidade Federal Fluminense. He has authored several technical papers on turbomachinery testing, low and high speed balancing, compressor selection, RAM analysis and life cycle costs analysis. |
Jeff Moore
| J. Jeffrey Moore, Ph.D., is a Principal Engineer at Southwest Research Institute, in San Antonio, Texas. His professional experience over the last 15 years includes engineering and management responsibilities at Solar Turbines, Inc., Dresser-Rand, and Southwest Research Institute. His interests include rotordynamics, seals and bearings, finite element analysis, controls, and aerodynamics. He has authored more than 10 technical papers in the area of rotordynamics and aerodynamics and has given numerous tutorials and lectures. Dr. Moore received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees (Mechanical Engineering, 1991, 1993, 1999) from Texas A&M University. |
Hiroaki Ohsaki
| Hiroaki Ohsaki is Deputy General Manager of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Hiroshima Machinery Works, in Hiroshima, Japan. His responsibility is for both technical and commercial aspects of machinery products manufactured in the Kan-on plant. His previous assignment for the Turbomachinery Engineering Department is still part of his responsibility. This department is involved in the marketing, R&D (providing direction), designing of centrifugal compressors, integrally geared compressors, mechanical drive steam turbines, and mechanical drive gas turbines for the petrochemical, oil refinery, and the upstream oil and gas markets. He joined Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1975. Mr. Ohsaki received a B.S. and M.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Osaka University. |
Vinod Patel
| Vinod P. Patel is a Senior Principal Machinery Engineer, Machinery Technology, for KBR, in Houston, Texas. He has been with KBR for 30 years. In his current assignment, he is responsible in the preparation and auditing of specifications, equipment evaluation, engineering coordination, and testing and installation startup of rotating and special equipment. He has worked in the various application of rotating machinery in the petrochemical and refinery processes including ammonia, LNG, olefins, cat-cracking, and hydrotreating for domestic and international projects. Mr. Patel received B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical and Metallurgical Engineering) from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, India, and Youngstown University, respectively. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. |
Doug Petrie
| Douglas Petrie is with GE Energy Oil & Gas in Houston. Doug is responsible for the Service Sales activity for GE Oil and Gas in Latin America. He joined GE in 2002. Prior to working for GE, he worked for Elliott Turbomachinery and Dresser Industries. Doug has 29 years of experience in the Rotating Equipment Industry where he has held various jobs in both Operations and Sales. His most recent role before taking Latin America Sales was 3 years as General Manager of Services in North America for GE Oil and Gas. Doug has a BS from Clarkson University with a Major in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. He is based in Houston. |
Bernard Quoix
| Bernard Quoix is the Head of Total E&P Rotating Machinery Department and holds this position since November 2003. He started his career in 1979 within Total Operations in the North Sea, then from 1986 to 1989 became Head of Engineering of Turbomeca Industrial Division, a small and medium size gas-turbines manufacturer, then went to Renault Car Manufacturer as Assistant Manager of the testing facilities for prototype and production engines, before joining Elf Aquitaine and eventually Total, mainly involved in all aspects of turbomachines, including conceptual studies, projects for new oil and gas field development, commissioning and start-up, and bringing his expertise to Operations of all Total Affiliated Companies worldwide. He has been a member of the Turbomachinery Advisory Committee since 2005. |
Peter Rasmussen
| Peter C. Rasmussen is a Supervisor in the Gas & Facilities Division of ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, in Houston, Texas. He is responsible for developing applications in the LNG and gas area as well as machinery support to the upstream companies. He began his career in machinery with General Electric as a Field Engineer installing and maintaining gas and steam turbines. Mr. Rasmussen joined Mobil in 1978 in the New Orleans E&P Operating Company as a Machinery Engineer and has since held several positions in engineering and operations. His work has included design, construction, and startup of offshore production platforms and LNG plants. Mr. Rasmussen received his B.S. degree (Ocean Engineering, 1974) from Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas, and is a member of the Turbomachinery Symposium Advisory Committee. |
| Terry L. Roehm is a Corporate Reliability Engineer for Marathon Oil, in Houston, Texas. He specializes in rotating equipment and his responsibilities focus on improvement of the reliability of rotating equipment for the upstream of Marathon. In addition, Mr. Roehm is involved with the specification, selection, procurement, installation, startups, troubleshooting, and turnaround planning for the rotating equipment. He has had various positions in maintenance and engineering with the downstream portions of Marathon Petroleum and Ashland Oil for more than 30 years. Mr. Roehm has a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering) from Purdue University. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Kentucky, the past Chairman of the API Subcommittee on Mechanical Equipment, active on several API task forces, and a member of ASME. |
Charlie Rutan
| Charles R. (Charlie) Rutan is Senior Engineering Advisor, Specialty Engineering, with Lyondell Chemical Company, in Alvin, Texas. His expertise is in the field of rotating equipment, hot tapping/plugging, and special problem resolution. He has three patents and has consulted on turbomachinery, hot tapping, and plugging problems all over the world in chemical, petrochemical, power generation, and polymer facilities. Mr. Rutan received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1973) from Texas Tech University. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Turbomachinery Symposium, and has published and/or presented many articles. |
Mark Sandberg
| Mark R. Sandberg is a Consulting Machinery Engineer and Technical Team Leader with Chevron Energy Technology Company in Houston, Texas. His current duties involve providing technical assistance and services associated with the selection, design, specification, procurement, and testing of new rotating equipment along with failure analysis and troubleshooting problems with existing equipment, primarily in upstream oil and gas production and LNG processing. Mark has more than 30 years of varied experience in the process industries and has been involved with the design, manufacture, testing, and installation of numerous gas turbine driven centrifugal compressor trains in different services worldwide. Prior to joining Chevron, he was employed by ARCO, Petro-Marine Engineering, and The Dow Chemical Company. Mr. Sandberg has B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical Engineering) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas, and is a member of ASME and AIAA. |
Don Smith
| Donald R. (Don) Smith currently serves as President of Engineering Dynamics Inc. (EDI), in San Antonio, Texas. For the past 40 years, he has been active in the field engineering services, specializing in the analysis of vibration, pulsation, and noise problems with rotating and reciprocating equipment. He has authored and presented several technical papers. Prior to joining EDI, he worked at Southwest Research Institute for 15 years as a Senior Research Scientist, where he was also involved in troubleshooting and failure analysis of piping and machinery. Mr. Smith received his B.S. degree (Physics, 1969) from Trinity University. He is a member of ASME and the Vibration Institute. |
Stan Stevenson
| Stanley Stevenson is Service Engineering Manager for Siemens Power Generation Industrial Applications (formerly Demag Delaval), in Trenton, New Jersey. He has been with them for more than 27 years and has been involved in the design, manufacture, and testing of rotating equipment for the chemical, oil and gas, utility, and power generation markets. In his current role, Mr. Stevenson is responsible for the design and component selection for rotating equipment trains and auxiliary support systems, technical interface with customers, field service support during equipment installation, startup, and field operational problems. Mr. Stevenson has received both B.S. and M.S. degrees (Mechanical Engineering, 1980, 1983) from Drexel University. He is a member of ASME and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Pennsylvania. Mr. Stevenson is a member of PMI, where he is a certified PMP. |
Hans Weyermann
| Hans P. Weyermann is a Principal Rotating Equipment Engineer in the PM&IE department of ConocoPhillips Upstream Technology Group. In his current position, he is providing support to all aspects of turbomachinery in existing business units, as well as grass roots capital projects. He is also responsible for following the machinery related areas of corporate initiatives within the ConocoPhillips Upstream Company. Mr. Weyermann attended the College of Engineering in Brugg-Windisch, Switzerland. After receiving a B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering), he joined Sulzer Escher Wyss Turbomachinery in Zurich, as an application/design engineer in the turbocompressor department. Prior to joining the Phillips Company, he was the supervisor of the Rotating Equipment department at Stone and Webster Engineering in Houston. Mr. Weyermann is a member of ASME, the API SOME, and has served on various API Task Forces. |
John Whalen
| John K. Whalen is Engineering Manager and President of TCE/Turbo Components and Engineering, Inc., in Houston, Texas. He spent seven years at Turbodyne Steam Turbines (Dresser-Rand) as a Product Engineer in the Large Turbine Engineering Department and as an Analytical Engineer in the Rotordynamics Group of the Advanced Engineering and Development Department. In 1988, Mr. Whalen accepted a position with Centritech, as the Assistant Chief Engineer, and in 1989, he was promoted to Manager of Engineering. In 1991, he left Centritech to help start TCE. At TCE, he is responsible for the engineering department and engineering for the product lines, which include babbitted journal and thrust bearings, labyrinth seals, and related engineering services. Mr. Whalen received his B.S. degree (Mechanical Engineering, 1981) from the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is a member of ASME, STLE, and the Vibration Institute, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas. |
