Marcelo Martins

Marcelo Martins Professor University of São Paulo

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Marcelo Ramos Martins is Associate Professor in the Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering Department at University of São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and Associate Editor for the Journal of Offshore, Mechanics and Arctic Engineering from ASME. Dr. Martins, as the leader researcher of the Analysis, Evaluation and Risk Management Laboratory (LabRisco) at USP, has conducted and coordinated research and development projects on risk analysis and system reliability, including human reliability, and has over 200 published papers in journals and proceedings of conferences.

Katrina Groth

Katrina Groth Research Affiliate Ph.D. University of Maryland M.S. University of Maryland B.S. University of Maryland

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Dr. Katrina Groth is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. Groth is the associate director for research for UMD's Center for Risk and Reliability and the director of the Systems Risk and Reliability Analysis lab (SyRRA). Groth has published over 50 journal and conference papers, and 30 technical reports on the safety, risk, and reliability of complex engineering systems, ranging from hydrogen vehicle infrastructure, to aviation, to nuclear power plants. Groth’s research focuses on the development of model- and data- informed methods for system risk assessment, particularly through the use of Bayesian Network causal models to fuse sparse data, big data, and qualitative information from multiple sources into models that support decisions and prediction under deep uncertainty. Before joining UMD as faculty, she spent seven years as a researcher in the risk and reliability analysis department at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering from the University of Maryland (’08, ’09), and a B.S. in Nuclear Engineering from UMD (’04).

Chandrasekhar Putcha

Chandrasekhar Putcha Research Affiliate Ph.D. Indian Institute of Technology M.S. Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India B.S. Banaras Hindu Universty

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Since 1981, Dr. Chandrasekhar Putcha has been a Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at California State University, Fullerton. Before that, he was on the research faculty at West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV and a Post-Doctoral Fellow at University of Sherbrooke in Canada. His research areas of interest are –Reliability, Risk Analysis, Optimization and Mathematical Modeling. Because of his interdisciplinary areas of research, Dr. Putcha has published more than 175 research papers in various disciplines, such as Engineering, Business, Economics, Medicine, Kinesiology, Political Science and Sociology. He has done consulting work for several leading companies and received research grants from companies such as Boeing, Northrop Grumman Corporation (NGC), and from federal agencies, such as – NASA, Navy, Air Force, US Army Corps of Engineers. In 2007, Dr. Putcha received the campus-wide Outstanding Professor Award at California State University, Fullerton. He is the first recipient of this award from College of Engineering in 44 years, since this award was instituted in 1963. Also, Dr. Putcha is a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and he was the Head of Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) from 1996-2002.

Myron Hecht

Myron Hecht Senior Project Leader at The Aerospace Corporation J.D. University of California, Los Angeles M.B.A. University of California, Los Angeles M.S. University of California, Los Angeles

Dr. Hecht has a M.S. (Engineering), M.B.A, and J.D. degrees from UCLA, and has worked as a Sr Project Leader at The Aerospace Corporation. His areas of expertise include flight control, air traffic control, communications, and nuclear safety. 

Dongfeng Zhu

Dongfeng Zhu Director of Research and Development at ITEM Software Ph.D. University of Maryland

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Dr. Dongfeng Zhu received his Ph.D. from University of Maryland in Reliability Engineering in 2005 and continued as a Post Doctoral Researcher at the Center for Risk and Reliability until 2008. He currently serves as Director of Research and Development at ITEM Software. He has over 15 years of research, training, consulting, and software development experience in reliability engineering and risk analysis. Dr. Zhu’s research interests lie in the area of Probabilistic Risk Assessment, Bayesian Methods for Data Analysis, Software Reliability, and Human Reliability.

Clayton Smith

Clayton Smith Principle Professional Staff at JHU/APL Ph.D. University of Maryland M.S. University of Maryland B.S. University of Maryland

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Dr. Smith is a member of the Principle Professional Staff at JHU/APL with over 30 years of experience analyzing systems from risk, reliability, and safety perspectives. These systems included: NASA and DoD missions, payloads, ground communication systems, air traffic control systems, and missile systems. He is developing approaches to assess intentional threats against space assets using PRA and Game Theory techniques. He created and managed NASA’s International Space Station Program Probabilistic Risk Assessment specifically geared toward quantifying the safety risk during operations. Dr. Smith is currently the reliability engineering lead for APL’s Solar Probe Plus mission. He received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, M.S. in Engineering Management, and Ph.D. in Reliability Engineering all from the University of Maryland.

Masoud Pourali

Masoud Pourali President of KimiaPower PLLC Ph.D. University of Maryland

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Dr. Masoud Pourali received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in Reliability Engineering. His research interests are: System Health Monitoring, Prognostics and Health Management (PHM), Bayesian Sensor Placement Optimization, Common Cause Failure (CCF) Analysis, and Application of Bayesian Techniques such as Bayesian Belief Networks in Risk and Reliability Analysis.

Mardy Kazarians

Mardy Kazarians Principal Consultant at Kazarians & Associates, Inc. Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles

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Mardy Kazarians is an independent consultant and owner of Kazarians & Associates, Inc. specializing in risk assessment and risk management program development and implementation of highly hazardous operations. As part of his Ph.D. dissertation at UCLA, he developed a methodology for the fire risk in nuclear power plants. He has since worked on a large number of risk assessment projects for nuclear plants in the U.S. and abroad. He has extended his knowledge of risk assessment to other industries such as petroleum refining, chemicals manufacturing as well as systems and operations handling highly hazardous materials.

David Johnson

David Johnson Research Affiliate

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Dr. Johnson has more than 35 years of experience in risk-based analysis for industry and government applications. His extensive experience and knowledge in all facets of nuclear reactor probabilistic risk assessments (PRA) and expertise include probabilistic modeling and investigation of impacts of industrial endeavors, the development of quantitative risk assessment methods and the practical application of these methods to support risk management.

Karl Fleming

Karl Fleming Independent Consultant M.S. Carnegie Mellon University B.S. Penn State University

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Karl Fleming received his B.S. in Physics from Penn State University, Cum Laude in 1969 and his M.S. in Nuclear Science and Engineering at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1974. He has devoted his entire professional career of 45 years to the advancement and application of PRA technology in the nuclear, chemical, process, and aerospace industries. Following professional and executive level assignments at General Atomics, and Pickard Lowe and Garrick, and ERIN Engineering and Research he established an independent consulting firm in 2001 and continues to be active as an independent consultant.