People

DEI's success is a direct result of the quality, dedication, and talent of our people. With a healthy mix of senior, mid-career, and younger staff, we enjoy a dynamic work environment where teamwork, enthusiasm, dedication, and creativity (more than 20 patents) are valued and encouraged. DEI's small size permits even the senior staff members to stay close to their craft through daily, hands-on involvement in engineering tasks. DEI's younger engineers range in experience from new graduates to 10- to 15-year veterans. More than half of the technical staff members are licensed professional engineers or hold advanced engineering degrees. Brief biographies of the more senior staff are provided below:

Robert D. Varrin, Jr., Ph.D.

Robert Varrin joined DEI in 1993 and is currently a principal engineer and principal officer. Prior to joining us, Dr. Varrin was a senior engineer and program manager at Foster-Miller, Inc. in Waltham, MA; a research associate at the Institute of Energy Conversion in Newark, DE; and an engineer at MPR Associates in Washington, D.C. Dr. Varrin has 27 years of experience in the nuclear power, semiconductor and chemical-process industries. He has authored more than 100 reports and publications and has been an inventor or co-inventor on eight U.S. and foreign patents. Dr. Varrin's interests and expertise include chemistry, corrosion, chemical cleaning, mechanical design, ultrasonic cleaning, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. A magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University in 1980, he earned his Masters of Engineering at Stanford University in 1981 and completed his doctoral work at the University of Delaware in 1991.

David J. Gross, P.E.

David Gross joined DEI in 1989 and is currently a senior engineer and principal officer. Before joining DEI, Mr. Gross was employed by the central engineering department of Texaco in Houston, Texas, where he was involved in the analysis of rotating equipment. Mr. Gross has 20 years of experience in the energy industry, with a primary focus on the nuclear and fossil-power generation sectors. His areas of responsibility at DEI include stress analyses, mechanical design, ultrasonic cleaning, mechanical vibrations, heat transfer and root cause failure analysis. He has authored more than 100 reports and publications in these areas. Mr. Gross received a B.S. degree and an M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Glenn A. White, P.E.

Glenn White joined DEI in 1993 after receiving BS and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park. He is a registered professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Currently a senior engineer and principal officer at the company, Mr. White manages a variety of engineering projects related to the commercial and noncommercial nuclear power industries with a focus on analytical modeling, experimental design, probabilistic assessments and software development. He also has expertise in stress-corrosion cracking of nickel-alloy materials and of nuclear-steam generator fouling.

Jeffrey Gorman, Ph.D.

Jeff Gorman was one of the three founders of DEI in 1980. He graduated from Cornell University with a BCE in 1958. He worked for the Naval Reactors home office engineering staff for 6 years, first as a Naval officer and system engineer and then as a civilian employee in the pump design area. He then obtained his masters and doctorate degrees in engineering science, with emphasis on materials, at CalTech. From 1968 through 1980, Dr. Gorman was an engineer with MPR Associates in Washington, DC, where he worked in a variety of areas related to the nuclear power, fossil power, and offshore oil industries. This work involved materials selection, welding, quality assurance, nondestructive examination, failure analysis, and equipment trouble shooting. After helping found DEI in 1980, Dr. Gorman has worked in similar areas, with emphasis on failure analysis, materials, corrosion and chemistry issues affecting nuclear power plants. Dr. Gorman is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia and District of Columbia. He has authored numerous reports and other publications.

George J. Theus, Ph.D., P.E., FNACE

George Theus joined DEI in 2006 and is currently a principal engineer. Prior to joining DEI, Dr. Theus worked for McDermott International Inc.'s Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) Company, where he managed the Materials Performance and Corrosion Technology Sections of the Research and Development Division (17 years) and later served as the Chief Engineer for the Aerospace Components Division. From 1994 to 2006, Dr. Theus worked for Engineering Systems Inc., a forensic engineering consulting firm, and completed his tenure there as Vice President/Director of Materials and Applied Sciences. Dr. Theus earned a B.S. in metallurgy from Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering from the Ohio State University. Over the course of his career, Dr. Theus has managed major commercial and R&D programs and performed engineering and forensic work involving corrosion, materials characterization, water chemistry, chemical cleaning, and process engineering. In 2003, he was honored by being named a Fellow by the National Association of Corrosion Engineers. Dr. Theus is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Illinois.

John E. Broussard, III, P.E.

John Broussard joined DEI in 1994 after graduating magna cum laude in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech. Mr. Broussard is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia and has experience in the nuclear and fossil power industries. His expertise is in the investigation and technical evaluation of industrial systems and components, often using finite element analysis. Frequently, his work involves application of finite element analysis techniques to materials degradation evaluations. He has authored over 50 reports and publications and is a co-inventor on one U.S. patent. In addition to his technical work, Mr. Broussard manages the computing and telecommunications infrastructure at DEI.

Mark R. Fleming, P.E.

Mark Fleming joined DEI in 1990 and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Mr. Fleming has worked on finite element analysis, corrosion issues (particularly Alloy 600 PWSCC and vessel head wastage), database design consulting, evaluation of SG visual and NDE data, plant-outage support and laboratory research in vibrations and acoustics. In addition to his technical work, Mr. Fleming also manages our nuclear safety-related and laboratory quality assurance programs. He completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech in 1988 and 1990, respectively. His graduate research focused on experimental verification of closed-form solutions for structural responses to piezo-induced harmonic excitation. His graduate work and an extension of it were awarded the 1994 Adaptive Structures and Material Systems Best Paper Award by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. As an undergraduate intern with General Motors, Mr. Fleming worked in the area of manufacturing process/design improvement for the Emissions Control Products group.

John E. Harris, P.E.

John Harris has 13 years of experience in the nuclear power industry, concentrating primarily on materials and corrosion issues in nuclear steam generators. He has also spent significant time as a mechanical-design engineer. Mr. Harris is an author of several published reports, including several which are industry benchmarks for predicting the long-term reliability of power plant steam generators. His interests and expertise include materials corrosion, mechanical design, structural integrity of equipment, statistics and reliability and computer modeling. He earned a Bachelors of Mechanical Engineering with highest honor from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1993, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Marc A. Kreider, P.E.

As a graduate of the engineering mechanics program at Virginia Tech, Marc Kreider joined DEI in 1992. He has worked in a number of different technical areas, including mechanical design, finite element stress analysis, heat-exchanger thermal performance, and investigation of fouling and deposition processes. In the mid-1990s, he helped develop a widely used methodology for quantitatively evaluating the thermal performance and economics of nuclear steam generator operation and management. As a senior engineer, he continues to apply and refine this program, which includes analysis of thermal-hydraulic performance, evaluation of the heat-transfer properties of corrosion deposit layers, statistical prediction of future tube corrosion rates, and economic calculations for different strategic management options.

Charles R. Marks, Ph.D.

Chuck Marks joined DEI in 1999 after receiving his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park.  His areas of expertise include fluid mechanics, electrochemistry, biotechnology, and corrosion.  Before joining DEI, Dr. Marks held positions in the plastics and pharmaceutical industries.  Dr. Marks works primarily with corrosion issues arising from chemistry environments that develop at nuclear power plants.  His publications include peer-reviewed journal articles and industry technical publications on topics ranging from multiphase fluid flow to fundamental corrosion testing to expert systems.  Dr. Marks's alma mater is Tufts University, where he earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and English Literature.

Joshua M. Luszcz

Josh Luszcz joined DEI in 1999 after receiving a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Virginia Tech.  A significant portion of his work at DEI has been related to the development and laboratory testing of chemical and mechanical (e.g. ultrasonic, water lancing) cleaning processes for heat exchangers.  Mr. Luszcz has also been involved in the design and fabrication of field equipment used to implement chemical cleaning, chemical treatment, water lancing, and ultrasonic cleaning processes.  In addition to mechanical equipment design, Mr. Luszcz has also been responsible for the electrical distribution, motor control, instrumentation, process control, data acquisition, and operating software interfaces associated with chemical processing and ultrasonic cleaning field equipment.  Mr. Luszcz also participated in the design and construction of DEI's current laboratory facility.

David Arguelles

David Arguelles joined DEI in 2001.  Mr. Arguelles has focused primarily on the development of equipment for the cleaning of plant systems using advanced ultrasonics.  His activities on these projects include laboratory qualification test design and execution, detailed design of field equipment, logistical coordination during fabrication, and training.  In addition to his work on ultrasonic cleaning, Mr. Arguelles has worked on finite element stress analyses and is responsible for maintaining the machine tools in the DEI lab facility.  Mr. Arguelles graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  While at MIT, he placed highly in several undergraduate design contests, most notably the sophomore "2.70" robotics competition during which he received first place honors.

Michael J. Little

Michael Little joined DEI in 2001 after graduating summa cum laude from Cornell University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering. As an undergraduate, Mr. Little conducted research in the area of semiconductor and microelectronics processing, and was a 2001 Merrill Presidential Scholar and the valedictorian of the College of Engineering. While at DEI, Mr. Little has worked on a variety of projects related to the management of secondary-side deposits in nuclear steam generators. His work in this area has included experimental studies of the effect of water chemistry on deposit formation and development of specialty chemical and mechanical cleaning processes to remove and/or modify secondary-side deposits in order to improve steam generator operability and thermal performance. Mr. Little has been the primary author of more than 20 technical reports and publications on chemical cleaning processes prepared for both commercial and government clients, and is currently the lead engineer responsible for the continued research and development of advanced scale conditioning agent (ASCA) technology (U.S. Patent No. 6,740,168).