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Expert has had extensive experience in industry as well as academia in the area of advanced ceramics. He was a professor of Ceramic Engineering for 12 years, and has been a Summer Researcher at three national labs. He has been closely involved with the advancement of oxide and non-oxide ceramics. In addition, his consulting work has included projects on aluminosilicate, SiC, AlN, spinel, Al2TiO5, glass-ceramics, and other ceramic products.

Most of Expert's career has been spent conducting refractory failure analyses in a wide range of high-temperature manufacturing/processing applications. These applications include steel, glass, chemicals, non-ferrous metals, and incinerators. For the last 25+ years Expert has conducted refractory failure analyses in a variety of different contexts; as an industrial technologist, academic, and a consultant. A diversity of materials has been involved in his work, including both oxide and non-oxide types. His research and work apply to industrial applications including steel, glass furnaces, aluminum and copper furnaces, incinerators, foundries, ladles, chimneys, duct-work, heat recuperators, and PFBC air filters.


Expert has had 25+ years of experience in almost all aspects and types of fired, unfired, fibrous, and monolithic industrial refractories. This includes fireclay, alumina, silica, basic, insulating, carbon, and special products for many different applications. His experience and contact network in the field is international in scope and includes more than 200 lectures on five continents.

Expert has had 25+ years of experience in the research, testing, and practical studies involving a variety of fired and unfired basic products such as magnesia, magnesia-chrome, chromite, dolomite, and magnesia-carbon/graphite.

Expert's 25+ years of experience have included research, development, testing, and practical studies on many fired, unfired, and monolithic fireclay and alumina products. Some of the specific types of refractories include high-duty fireclay, super-duty fireclay, 70% alumina, mullite, 85% alumina, 90% alumina, alumina-chrome, and alumina-zircon-silica.

Expert has been involved in the thermal characterization of refractories for at least 25+ years, including DTA, thermal shock and conductivity, lining design and heat flow, energy conservation, and others. His efforts in this field have resulted in multi-million dollar savings for several companies. In addition, his work on the thermal shock testing of refractories resulted in a new ASTM standard test (C-1100, Ribbon Test).

Expert was the Director of the Refractories Research Center at Ohio State University for 12 years. The RRC was the only full service referee refractories testing lab in the US, offering over 100 ASTM standard tests, each of which included a variety of mechanical property determinations. As the Director of the RRC, Expert managed and wrote reports for 200-250 testing projects per year.

Expert has had 20+ years of hands-on lab and field testing experience using non-destructive, ultrasonic techniques on refractories. He has helped to develop methods to non-destructively estimate the strength (or Weibull Modulus) of a refractory/ceramic, to monitor and compare its thermal shock resistance, and to detect internal cracks or defects. These techniques have been summarized in published papers.