Speakers and Panelists Biographical Profiles

Dr. Aviva Brecher is a National Technical Expert in Transportation Safety, Health, and Environment, in the Planning and Policy Analysis Division, Office of Surface Transportation Programs, at the DOT/RITA Volpe Center. Her recent work focused on the safety, health and environmental analysis of emerging transportation technologies, such as: a safety roadmap for plastics and composite intensive vehicles (PCIV), hydrogen and alternative fueled transportation options, maglev systems, remote sensing and security applications of GPS position, navigation and timing (PNT), and of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and space launch vehicle safety. Her transportation work portfolio also includes: multi-modal strategic planning and analysis; Research and Technology program planning, transportation futures and innovation forecasts, regulatory and policy analysis, risk assessment and management, and electromagnetic radiation exposure safety standards. She has over 30 years of technical work experience in academia, business and government, and holds Physics BS and MS degrees from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from UCSD. She published numerous technical reports and articles, served on professional societies committees (APS, IEEE, AAAS, TRB), is a Fellow of the American Physics Society (APS) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and a former Sigma Xi Distinguished Lecturer, Congressional Science Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow, and Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellow. She owns half of Asteroid 4242-Brecher.

Dr. John C. Brewer joined the Volpe Center in 1991. During his career at the Center he has worked on the Federal Aviation Administration's Aging Aircraft Program, conducted risk analysis of hazardous materials in aircraft cargo compartments for the Office of Hazardous Materials (now part of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration), developed a strategic plan for the Wire System Safety Interagency Working Group of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and performed crashworthiness studies of motor vehicles using finite element computational methods for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. His current NHTSA research focuses on child safety. Prior to his service at the Volpe Center, Dr. Brewer worked for the Department of the Army at the Natick Research, Development, and Engineering Center in Natick, MA, where his research included composite applications to airdrop technology and advanced mobile shelters. While at Natick, he also developed a technology base master plan for airdrop systems. In addition, he has worked as Chief Design Engineer for a private firm that develops continuous spooled composite tubing for the oil services industry. Dr. Brewer received his S.B. (1983), S.M. (1985), and Ph.D. (1988) degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His graduate research related to failure mechanisms in advanced composite materials. He recently completed his Masters in Business Administration (2004) degree primarily through distance learning at Suffolk University in Boston under the sponsorship of the Volpe Fellows program. He has been a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sigma Gamma Tau, Sigma Xi, the Engineering Society of Detroit, and the Society for the Advancement of Material and Process Engineering. Dr. Brewer has written and presented numerous papers in composite technology, aircraft longevity, and crashworthiness in refereed journals and international conferences. He received the Superior Achievement Award (Research and Special Programs Administrator's Bronze Medal) in 2001. He was selected as an Excellence in Government Fellow in 2002. Dr. Brewer has three patents in the fields of parachute technology and aviation damage tolerance, for which he has received recognition from the United States Secretary of Transportation. He has served as acting division chief of the Vehicle Crashworthiness Division. In the fall of 2005, he served a 30-day voluntary assignment with the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He has obtained certification from the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional.

Dr. Joseph A Carpenter, Jr. is the Lightweighting Materials Technology Development Area Manager, in the Department of Energy Office of Vehicle Technologies, a key part of the FreedomCAR and Fuel national research partnership with the automotive and energy industry. Prior to joining DOE, he held R&D and research management positions at Chrysler Corporation, the Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He holds Bachelor and Doctoral degrees in materials from Virginia Tech.

Lynette Cheah is a PhD Candidate in the Engineering Systems Division at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a researcher at the Sloan Automotive Laboratory. Her research focus is on the life-cycle energy and environmental impacts, and material flow assessments in transportation systems. Her current project evaluates the feasibility and impact of passenger vehicle weight and size reductions in the U.S. Prior to returning to graduate school, she worked in the national agency for science and technology research in Singapore, overseeing the environmental science and engineering portfolio. Lynette holds a B.S. civil and environmental engineering from Northwestern University, and a M.S. in management science from Stanford University.

Suzanne M. Cole is President of Cole & Associates, Inc., a management-consulting firm, specializing in regulatory and legislative affairs. CAA represents clients in the automotive, chemicals, plastics, energy, and medical industries. Suzanne has extensive automotive product marketing, regulatory and legislative affairs experience. She served on several SAE technical committees, was a keynote speaker for the SAE WEC on automotive legislative and regulatory issues; and was nominated in 2004 and 2005 for the SAE WEC Breed Award for Women’s Leadership and received multiple awards from the International Society of Plastics Engineers. Suzanne organized and chaired the Automotive Innovation Awards Program, known as the Academy Awards of the Automotive Plastics Industry, in 2004 and 2005. She also organized and Chaired Global Automotive Safety Conferences in 2000, 2001 and 2002, which brought together automotive OEM, supplier executives and engineers with the regulatory community to discuss auto safety design, injury prevention, new materials applications, telematics and electronic data recorders. Suzanne also served on numerous legislative committees at the federal and state levels: She was appointed by Governor Engler to the Michigan Broadband Development Authority; and served on the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Revisions Committee in Congress and the Presidents Export Council. She has testified before congress on automotive safety and environmental issues. In addition, she authored and contributed to several articles on automotive safety, vehicle emissions and diesel technology and authored a white paper for the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute on Automotive recycling.

Formerly, Suzanne was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and General Manager of Federal Programs at National Environmental Testing (NET) in Boston, where she oversaw all Federal Programs; interacting with the Joint Staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, EPA, FDA and others. She held leadership positions within the Council of Independent Laboratories and was appointed by the Governor of New Mexico to head the laboratory accreditation council. Suzanne also held positions as V.P. of Analytic and Biological Laboratories in Farmington Hills, MI; and as a legislative aide in Congress. Suzanne holds a B.S. in Chemistry and MBA from the University of Michigan and a Masters in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University.

Michael Hunt is a Senior Advanced Engineer at Meridian Automotive Systems, Inc. He is a 21 year veteran engineer in the automotive industry, having served at Meridian Automotive for the past 14 years. Seven of these years were spent in Meridian’s energy management group engineering bumper beams, fascias and EPP energy absorbers. Mike has a diverse product design and manufacturing background, having worked with Meridian’s thermoplastic, thermoset, and metals divisions. In addition to working in Product Design assignments, he as also worked in Meridian’s Commercial Development Group. Mike’s current assignment at Meridian is to work with the automotive OEM’s engineering communities and identify where Meridian’s product portfolio offers cost, weight, or performance improvements and develop specific product design proposals to meet those needs. Mike is a member of the Automotive Composite Alliance (ACA), a division of the American Composites Manufacturing Association (ACMA).

Paolo Feraboli is Assistant Professor in Aerospace Structures and Materials, Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of the University of Washington since 2005. Since then he has been collaborating with The Boeing Co., Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. on various research projects related to the development of analytical and experimental techniques for composite materials. He has authored over 45 publications, and chairs the Composite Materials Handbook-17 Working Group on Crashworthiness (former MIL-HDBK-17), chairs the Technical Division for Durability and Damage Tolerance of the American Society for Composites, and is a member of the AIAA Materials Technical Committee. Since early 2006 he has been an active participant in the technology development of the composite-intensive Boeing 787 Dreamliner. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara under the supervision of Dr. Keith Kedward, and holds previous degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy.

Jacob Fish is Rosalind and John J. Redfern Chair, Professor in Engineering and Director, Multiscale Science and Engineering Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. For over 25 years, Dr. Fish has been in the forefront of multiscale computational science and engineering, an emerging discipline that bridges the gap between modeling, simulation and design of products based on multiscale principles. He has an accomplished track record of technology transfer to industry. His multiscale methodologies have been employed by industry for manufacturing processes of GE90 fan blades; design of turbo-engines for GE and Rolls-Royce; simulation of aerospace structural components for Lockheed-Martin and Sikorski; optimization of energy absorption mechanism for lightweight composite cars manufactured by Ford, GM and Chrysler and numerous nanotechnology applications including nanodevices and nanocomposites sponsored by Northrop-Grumman, Sandia National Laboratory, Army Research Laboratory and Department of Energy. Dr. Fish received the 2005 USACM Computational Structural Mechanics Award "in recognition for his contributions to multiscale computational methods". For his "significant contributions to computational science and engineering" he received 2003 Rensselaer School of Engineering Research Award. Dr. Fish has written over 150 journal articles, book chapters and books, two of which have won the best paper awards in the 1995 ASME International Computers in Engineering Conference and in the 1993 Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference. His new book, A First Course in Finite Elements, was released last summer to wide acclaim. The book has been integrated into curriculums at universities across the globe, and is currently being translated into Japanese and Portuguese. Dr. Fish is a Fellow of American Academy of Mechanics, United States Association for Computational Mechanics (USACM) and the International Association for Computational Mechanics (IACM). More details can be found at http://www.rpi.edu/~fishj

Dr. Peter H. Foss is a Staff Researcher in the Materials and Processes Lab at the General Motors Research and Development Center. He received a Bachelors degree from the University of Maine in 1981 and a Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1985, both in Chemical Engineering. Since that time, Peter has worked at the General Motors Research and Development Center, where he does research on virtual prototyping of plastics and composites. His research interests include the simulation of injection molding, thermoforming and other composites manufacturing processes, with a special interest on coupling process simulation with design, optimization and performance simulation.

Mary Fraser is a Marketing Manager in BASF Corporation’s Engineering Plastics Division. She is responsible for developing the group’s sustainability strategy. In this role, she assesses the market’s needs for sustainable materials and aligns BASF Engineering Plastics strategy and product portfolio to better meet the needs from an environmental and economic perspective. Prior to this role, Mary held various other roles within BASF including Product Business Manager for Compounded Nylon and Polyester; Automotive Interior Marketing Manager, Engineering Plastics; Automotive Sales Manager, Performance Polymers and Urethanes. Mary earned her MBA from The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI and her Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from The University of Detroit Mercy, Detroit, MI.

John B. Heywood is Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. did his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at Cambridge University and his graduate work at MIT. He then worked for the British Central Electricity Generating Board on magneto-hydrodynamic power generation. Since 1968 he has been a faculty member at MIT, where is he now Director of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory and Sun Jae Professor of Mechanical Engineering. His research is focused on the design and operating characteristics of internal combustion engines, their fuels requirements, and broader studies of future transportation technologies and their fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. He has also worked on design and manufacturing issues in MIT's Leaders for Manufacturing Program where he was Engineering Co-Director. He is currently involved in studies of the energy and environmental impacts of future technology and fuels. He has published some 190 papers in the technical literature, holds a number of patents, and has won several awards for his professional contributions. He holds a Sc.D. degree from Cambridge University for his published research contributions. He is a author of a major text and professional reference "Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals," and co-author with Professor Sher of "The Two-Stroke Cycle Engine: Its Development, Operation, and Design." From 1992-1997 he led MIT's Mechanical Engineering Department's efforts to develop and introduce a new undergraduate curriculum. In 1982 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers. He was honored by the 1996 U.S. Department of Transportation National Award for the Advancement of Motor Vehicle Research and Development. He is a consultant to the U.S. Government and a number of industrial organizations. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1998. In 1999, Chalmers University of Technology awarded him the degree of Doctor of Technology honoris causa. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is now co-directing MIT's Mechanical Engineering Department's Center for 21st Century Energy which is developing a broader set of energy research initiatives. In January 2003, Professor Heywood was appointed Co-Director of the Ford-MIT Alliance. In 2004, City University, London, awarded him the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.

William Thomas (Tom) Hollowell, Ph.D has recently retired after 32 years of service from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), where he served as the Director of the Office of Applied Vehicle Safety Research. He was responsible for formulating and executing research programs to achieve Agency objectives in projects relating to vehicle structures and occupant restraint systems, human injury, crash avoidance, and heavy truck safety. He is an internationally recognized expert in vehicle crash safety, having published over 50 technical papers on vehicle crashworthiness, crash modeling, crash testing, accident statistics, and impact biomechanics. Dr. Hollowell was elected a Society of Automotive Engineering (SAE) Fellow in January 2005. Upon retirement, Dr. Hollowell has continued to be active in motor vehicle safety. He serves as an associate editor for the Journal for Traffic Injury Prevention and is active in the SAE. In December 2007, he established his consulting business. Among his clients are the American Chemistry Council, the European Commission, the Japanese National Traffic Safety and Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University in Japan, and the SAE.

Nelson (Ned) H. Keeler, Acting Director at Volpe Center is also Director of the Office of Aviation Programs. He joined the Volpe Center in January, 2006 after concluding a very successful assignment as the Director of NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation Facility in Fairmont, WV (2001-06), where he was responsible for the overall management of the IV&V Facility providing mission critical software.

Ned holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering from the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Academy and was commissioned as an officer in 1963. He received his aviator's wings in 1965 and amassed over 6,000 pilot hours during his career, principally flying search and rescue, and law enforcement missions. In 1970, Mr. Keeler received his master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. He also served as an avionics engineer, radio navigation researcher, information resource management systems engineer and program manager. He was a commander of a USCG Air Station and the USCG Research and Development Center. His work at the center resulted in the award of a Legion of Merit medal and recognition both nationally and internationally. After his Coast Guard career, Ned joined NASA, serving in the Space Station Freedom program, and later in the Office of Space Flight's Advanced Launch Technology and Advanced Flight Systems programs.

Mr. Keeler then left NASA for private industry, first working for Stanford Telecommunications as its Navigation Department Manager, and then to GTECH Corporation as Projects Director, before returning to NASA.

Jim Kolb is the Sr. Director of Automotive Programs for the Plastics Division of the American Chemistry Council which includes the Automotive Center located in Troy, MI. He is responsible for representation of the plastics industry to automotive OEM's, automotive tier suppliers and allied associations such as USCAR, AIAG and OESA. Jim is also responsible for implementing several new anticipated initiatives as outlined in the Plastics Division's "Plastics in Automotive Markets Vision and Technology Roadmap," including research, government advocacy and automotive plastics infrastructure improvement. His automotive and plastics expertise includes over 30 years of experience in the industry with a number of suppliers, including Dow Automotive, Essex Specialty Products and Bayer USA. He has held positions in sales, commercial development and marketing; participating in a number of industry firsts for plastics in the auto industry such as bumper systems, body panels, instrument panels and passenger safety systems. Prior to coming to the Plastics Division, he was with Omni Tech International Ltd., a global consulting firm for the chemical and plastics industries, where he led automotive business & market development, including commercialization of bio-based industrial materials.

Professor Paul A. Lagace is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He currently serves as co-Director of the Technology Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Structures (TELAMS) and served for several years as the co-Director of the Leaders for Manufacturing (LFM) and Systems Design and Management (SDM) Programs -- both joint ventures of the School of Engineering and the Sloan School of Management. He is a highly regarded international authority on the response and failure of composite structures and recognized as a national leader for the development of composite structures technology. He has frequently served as an advisor and consultant to industry and government agencies. He graduated from M.I.T. in 1978 with an S.B. in Aeronautics and Astronautics and pursued his graduate education at M.I.T. in Aeronautics and Astronautics earning his S.M. in 1979 and his Ph.D. in 1982. Since joining the faculty in 1982, Professor Lagace has conducted research in the areas of mechanics, fracture, longevity, damage resistance, and damage tolerance of composite materials and their structures. The work has an experimental orientation, but development of analytical tools has also been pursued with a particular objective of developing efficient analytical methodologies which are useful in performing parametric studies early in the design process. His recent work has specifically addressed the issues of lengthscales in the damage and failure of composite materials and their structures and the use of such in structural design. He has published widely on these topics and on general topics related to composite materials and their structures. He has recently pursued interest in the more generic systems issues related to technology and its use.

Professor Lagace has taught courses in the areas of mechanics of materials and structures with special emphasis on composite materials and their structures and has developed courses dealing with manufacturing with composite materials and advanced topics in composite materials and structures. With James Mar, he developed the video course series "Composite Materials". His recent interests have led him to develop courses in "Systems Thinking" and a freshman course on the "Essentials of Engineering". He has received departmental teaching and advising awards, an Institute award for excellence in undergraduate teaching, and a Class of 1960 Faculty Fellowship. He is a MacVicar Faculty Fellow in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate education. He is a member of a number of societies, a fellow of the AIAA, the ASC, and the ASTM, and has served for a number of years as president of the International Committee on Composite Materials being recognized as a World Fellow of Composites. In addition, he has served on a number of governmental committees and as a consultant to industry. He has received awards from various organizations and has delivered invited talks around the world. In his spare time, he is a local high school football official and an ardent sports fan, best known for his support of the Boston Red Sox.

Kevin Pageau is currently an Account Executive with Tegrant Corporation. For the past 9 years he has worked with various Tier 1 suppliers and OEM's developing and commercializing thermoplastic foams for energy absorbing applications in headliners, door panels, instrument panels, and seating systems. Kevin has over 25 years of automotive plastics application development experience, holding leadership positions in sales and engineering at GE Plastics, BP Amoco, and various automotive suppliers. He is a Senior Member and Honored Service Member, Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), and member of SAE. He holds a BS, Mechanical Engineering, Michigan Technological University

Dr. Jackie Rehkopf is a Senior Engineer at Exponent, in the Vehicle Engineering Practice, investigating issues related to failure analysis and part performance. Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Rehkopf worked for 12 years in materials R&D for an automotive OEM. Dr. Rehkopf has developed expertise in high strain rate behavior of materials, having developed testing capabilities for high strain-rate tensile/compression testing at rates representative of automotive crash situations, and having evaluated a broad spectrum of materials for vehicle applications including AHSS, aluminum, magnesium, engineering plastics, and glass-fiber reinforced plastics. Dr. Rehkopf also has expertise in the areas of fatigue and creep, with emphasis on reinforced and non-reinforced polymers. Dr. Rehkopf has vast experience with component performance, particularly plastic fuel tanks and other fuel system components, bumpers, energy-absorbing foams, and plastic interior vehicle components. In concert with this, Dr. Rehkopf has authored material and engineering specifications, conducted root cause analyses on manufacturing and field failures, and supported finite element analyses with experimental data and selection of material behavior models. She holds degrees in Civil Engineering (B.A. Sc. and Ph. D) from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Khaled W. Shahwan is Current Chair of the Energy Management Working Group (EMWG) of the Automotive Composites Consortium (ACC) and works in the Experimental & Computational Mechanics Department of the Chrysler Technology Center-Scientific Laboratories, Chrysler LLC. He has been an active member within various ACC groups for 12 years. Prior to 1999, he was at Ford Research. He has over 19 years of R&D experience in computational mechanics and composites, and published over 30 publications. He is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA; Associate Editor of the Journal of Engineering Mechanics; Vice/Past Chair of the Stability Committee (EMI-ASCE); Member of ASME, ASCE, AAM, ASC, & USACM. He holds a Ph.D.in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, an MS Aerospace Engineering, and MS and BS degrees in Civil Engineering.

Stephen Summers is Acting Division Chief for the Structures and Restraints Research Division in the National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) Office of Applied Vehicle Safety Research. He joined NHTSA in 1990 as a mechanical engineer working on vehicle safety research. Since then, he has been responsible for a wide range of safety research assignments, including vehicle compatibility, rollover, advanced glazing systems, door latch, and heavy truck rear under-ride. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.

David A. Wagner is Technical Leader, Vehicle Design Research & Advanced Engineering at Ford Motor Company, where he helps shepherd cutting edge technologies developed by Ford researchers to the company's brands and conducts his own research in the areas of lightweight vehicles and materials. "Lightweight materials are an important aspect in gaining fuel economy, but the vehicles must also be safe during a crash situation and durable for fifteen years," he says. "Our goal is to increase fuel economy while maximizing the safety and durability of our vehicles." He has been at Ford for eighteen years in research and advanced engineering, working on lightweight vehicles, safety and materials. Prior industrial experience includes six years at Exxon Production Research in Houston working on offshore oil platforms and pipelines. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, and Mechanical Engineering degrees (M.S.C.E and B.S.C.E.) from the University of Notre Dame.

Charles David (Dave) Warren is currently the Program Manager for Transportation Composites at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He is the Field Technical Manager for Composites in the Automotive Lightweighting Materials effort, a part of the FreedomCAR Initiative of the Department of Energy Office of Vehicle Technologies. With 20 years of experience in the field of composite materials, Dr. Warren is a graduate of Vanderbilt University where he completed all of his undergraduate and graduate work in materials science and engineering. Formerly, as lead materials engineer for developing the Peacekeeper, Small ICBM and Rail Garrison programs Dr. Warren served as a Captain in the United State Air Force prior to joining ORNL in 1991. Dr. Warren has authored 45 technical publications mostly in composite materials development and application.

David Zuby is Senior Vice President of Vehicle Research for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety's Vehicle Research Center. Mr. Zuby joined IIHS in 1993. Prior to joining the Institute, he worked at TRC of Ohio on research projects for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He attended Northwestern University in Illinois where he earned a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Biomedical Engineering. Mr. Zuby is author of numerous research papers published by the Institute.