Keynote and Plenary
Dr. B. John Garrick, Honorary Chair
B. John Garrick Institute for Risk Sciences, UCLA
Title: The Challenges (and Opportunities) Facing The Risk Sciences
Dr. Garrick is a recognized international authority on the application of the risk sciences to complex technological systems in the nuclear, space, defense, chemical, marine, and transportation fields.
He was appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board as Chairman on September 10, 2004 and served two terms ending September 2012. He served for 10 years (1994-2004), 4 years as chair, on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste. His areas of expertise include quantitative risk assessment and nuclear science and engineering. A founder of the firm PLG, Inc., Garrick retired as President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer in 1997. Before PLG's acquisition and integration into a new firm, it was an international engineering, applied science, and management consulting firm.
Garrick was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993, the highest honor that can be granted to an engineer; President of the Society for Risk Analysis 1989-90, and recipient of that Society's most prestigious award, the Distinguished Achievement Award in 1994. He has been a member and chair of several National Research Council committees, having served as Vice Chair of the Academies' Board on Radioactive Waste Management and as a member of the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources. He is Vice Chairman and technical lead of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants and was Chairman of the National Academy of Engineer’s Committee on Combating Terrorism. Among other National Academy committees he has chaired are the Committee on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Committee on Technologies for Cleanup of High-Level Waste in Tanks in the DOE Weapons Complex, and the Panel on Risk Assessment Methodologies for Marine Systems. Other Academy committee memberships included space applications, automotive safety, proliferation of nuclear materials, and chemical weapons disposal. He is a member of the first class of lifetime national associates of the National Academies.
Garrick’s academic experience includes adjunct professorships at UCLA and Vanderbilt University; short course lecturer at MIT; member of Dean’s Advisory Council, UCLA’s School of Engineering; member of the Leadership Council, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, BYU; and serving on the National Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology as well as a past member of other university advisory committees.
Garrick authored the book “Quantifying and Controlling Catastrophic Risks” published by Academic Press; editor of the book, “The Analysis, Communication, and Perception of Risk” published by Plenum Press; lead author of the handbook “Power Plant Availability Engineering” published by the Electric Power Research Institute; author of several book chapters; and published more than 250 technical papers and reports on risk, reliability, engineering, and technology.
Garrick received his Ph.D. in engineering and applied science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1968. His fields of study were neutron transport, applied mathematics, and applied physics. He received an M.S. in nuclear engineering from UCLA in 1962, attended the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology in 1954-55, and received a B.S. in physics from Brigham Young University in 1952. He is a fellow of three professional societies: the American Nuclear Society, the Society for Risk Analysis, and the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in California.
