Under Construction
Education
B.S. in Chemical Engineering, University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology), 1983Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, University of California at Berkeley, 1988
Jobs
1988-1990: National Research Council Postdoctoral Associate, Thermophysics Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland.1990-1994: Senior Engineer, Thermophysical Methods and Data, Simulation Sciences Inc., Brea, California.
1994-present: Chemical Engineer, Thermophysical Properties of Fluids Group, Applied Chemicals and Materials Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado.
What I Do at Work
That's always a bit hard to explain.About half of my job is more a service function, related to our "Standard Reference Databases". These databases are where NIST provides industry and researchers with the most accurate numbers available for thermophysical properties of fluids. Thermophysical properties are things like the heat of vaporization, the boiling temperature, or the viscosity. My major involvement is with the properties of water in its various forms. This includes creating and maintaining the NIST Standard Reference Database for water properties (described here) and coauthoring the recent revision of the widely used "ASME Steam Tables" book (described here). It also includes being a part of the U.S. delegation to the international organization that sets standards for these properties, the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam (IAPWS). An additional service function I perform is acting as Co-Editor for The Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data.
The other half of my job is research, mostly oriented around thermophysical properties of systems containing water or of dilute mixtures in general. This has included theory and modeling work on solubility of gases in water, solubility of solids in supercritical fluids, and use of molecular theory to describe deviations from ideal-gas behavior. An area of recent focus is properties of CO2-rich mixtures for energy applications. A list of my publications is here. A Webpage describing my research is here.
Personal
I haven't decided yet how much to put here. If you've seen my writings, you know that I am a Christian. I am a member of Grace Commons Church of Boulder, where I have been ordained as an Elder. My wife and I live in Boulder.Page last modified May 12, 2020
