Chemical Forensic Expert: Explosions, Combustion, and Chemical Processes

Expertise

• Fires and explosions
• Spontaneous combustion
• Environmental pollution
• Personal Injuries from fires or exposures
• Patent infringement
• Chemical Processes

Expert Witness Experience

Cases and Litigation

• Personal injury to workers from factory lead fumes. Analyzed air pollution data, prepared report, and testified in jury trial on exposures and EPA/OSHA standards.
• Explosion and fire from spark-ignited solvent fumes: Prepared report on solvent volatility, spread of fumes, and source of ignition.
• Toxins from a leaking lagoon for chemical wastes: Testimony on process that produced chemical wastes, on alternative methods of disposal, and exposures.
• Fire spread by combustible vegetable oil in storage: Prepared report on hazards of storage in relation to spontaneous combustion.
• Spontaneous combustion of a supermarket charcoal: Explained mechanism of spontaneous combustion, report on cause and origin of fire.
• Patent infringement on a corrosion-protective coating: Explained complex chemistry of process to distinguish between competing patents. Prepared report and deposition.
• Fire caused by storage of combustible naphthalene: Reported on flammability of naphthalene, its heating characteristics and hazards, origins of massive fire.
• Chemical wastes from leaks in pharmaceuticals plant: Analyzed causes of underground leakage, alternative storage, and process techniques.

Experience

Independent Expert Consultant and Witness, Present

• Providing various legal expert support, education, composing of numerous publications, and reviewer for the legal, academic, research and develop industries.

Consulting Activities

Legal Clients

• Analyzed process loop to find source of contaminant that made process inoperable.
• Explained complex chemistry of process to distinguish between competing patents.
• Identified the source of a fire in a Laundromat and explained its origin.

Industrial Clients

• Environmental research.
• Environmental protection.
• Plastics recycle.
• Research and development.
• Unit operations and reactor design and stability.
• Chemical reactor design, environmental systems.
• Energy storage and chemicals.
• Automatic control.
• Stability problems of high pressure chemical reactors.
• Control of chemical process systems.
• Process optimization for a pretroleum company.

Educator

University of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, PA

• Professor of Chemical Engineering: University Judicial Administrator, University Ombudsman, Chairman of Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Chairman of Graduate Group in Chemical Engineering, and Acting Director, School of Chemical Engineering

University of Rome, Italy, Department of Chemistry

• Visiting Professor

University of Pennsylvania,Philadelphia, PA

• Professor of Chemical Engineering
• University Judicial Administrator
• University Ombudsman
• Chairman of Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering
• Chairman of Graduate Group in Chemical Engineering
• Acting Director, School of Chemical Engineering

Casali Institute of Applied Chemistry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• Visiting Professor

University of Manchester, England, Institute of Science and Technology

• Visiting Professor

Harvard University

• Research Fellow in Engineering

Honors & Publications

Academic and Professional Affiliations

• American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• American Society of Engineering Education
• American Association for Advancement of Science

Review Panels

• U. S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation, Proposal Review
• U. S. Department of Energy, NETL Review Panel on Vision 21 Advanced Coal Research
• U. S. Department of Energy, Energy Technology Center, Review Panel on Environmental Research
• National Science Foundation, Panel on Engineering Research Centers
• U. S. Department of Energy, Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center, Review Panel on Coal Research
• National Science Foundation, Panel on Specialized Research Equipment
• Technical Reviewer, Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Congress
• National Science Foundation, Review Panel on Initiation Grants
• Ames Laboratory Review Panel on Chemical Science
• International Programs Panel on Energy Problems in UN Least Developed Nations
• U.S. Department of Energy Review Panel on Processes for Thermochemical Hydrogen
• Panelist on Environmental Problems, New York Section AIChE

Awards

• Lindbach Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania
• Fellowship at the National Research Council, Rome, Italy
• Forschheimer Chair at Hebrew University, Jerusalem
• Harry Pierce Chair at The Technion-Israel Institute of Technology
• Dodge Lecturer at Yale University.
• Prize from Quest for Technology, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
• American Society for Engineering Education, Award for outstanding contributions to education
• Fulbright Lecturer, University of Zagreb, Yugoslavia
• Fulbright Senior Research Fellow, University of Manchester, England
• Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard University
• Elected to New York Academy of Science
• Ford Foundation Faculty Development Grant
• Higgins Fellow at Yale University
• Elected to Sigma Xi honorary
• Elected to Tau Beta Pi honorary

Publications and Patents

• Author and Co-Author of over 100 publications; books, chapters, peer reviewed journals
• One U.S. patent

Education

• Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CO
• B.S. Chemical Engineering, New York University, New York, NY