Accident Reconstructions Biomedical Engineer Expert Witness

Expert Witness No.1772

Education

2001, PhD, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC Biomedical Engineering.
GPA=3.85/4.0

BS, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Applied and Materials Science, minors in Physics and Chemistry.

Significant Coursework

Biomechanics
Accident Reconstruction
Anatomy and Physiology
Math: Probability and Statistics
Physical Chemistry
Biomedical Instrumentation
Linear Control Theory
Statistical Thermodynamics
Physics: Electricity and Magnetism
Physics: Mechanics
Physics: Material Science
Math: Calculus I, II, III, Linear algebra and diff. Equations
Biochemistry
Tissue Engineering
Finite Element Analysis
Electronics (analog and digital)
Physics: relativity and quantum mechanics
Physics: Analog Electronics
Advanced Physics Laboratory
Thermodynamics
Molecular Physiology
Real-Time Computer Applications
Injury Causation and Analysis
Biomaterials, Molecular and Cellular Biology

Awards

Outstanding Academic Performance, Bayer Corporation Award.
Award Recipient for the National Biomedical Engineering Symposium.

Certificates

Certified Accident Reconstructionist by the Accreditation Commission for Traffic Accident Reconstruction
Low Speed Rear Impact Auto Crash Reconstruction certification.

Experience

Principal Consulting Scientist and Biomedical Engineer, Expert 1772’s Company, Tallahassee, FL. Specializing in analysis of accidents involving the nature of human injury, injury causation, visibility analysis, and analysis of injury severity consistent with the physics of the accident situation.  Qualified as an expert witness by courts in the United States. Work Experience: ~50% plaintiff, 50% defense cases.

Biomedical Engineer and Accident Reconstructionist, Quest Engineering and Failure Analysis, Inc. Engineering analysis of vehicular accidents; structural & material failures.

Post Doctoral Fellow, National High Magnetic Field Lab, Tallahassee, FL
Near-field scanning optical microscopy.

Post Doctoral Fellow, Department of Physics UNC-Chapel Hill
Research and design on a three-dimensional force microscope with emphasis on understanding human tissues response to forces.

Research Assistant. Department of Physics UNC-CH
Designed and built several laser based computerized force microscopy instruments.

CTO, and co-founder of SpanishDict.com, receives over 1.5 million hits a month.

Research Assistant. Experimental Cardiology Group UNC-CH
Ischemia-induced ventricular fibrillation of porcine hearts, with 3-dimensional reconstruction of the heart.

Skills

Injury Causation: medical records, experimental testing, computer modeling, and extensive knowledge of human injury tolerance allows for a correlation to be made between a claimed injury and the physics of a specific accident environment.

Biomechanics: determination of the forces and movement of the human body (occupant kinematics and biokinetics) for frontal, side-impact, rear-impact, and sideswipe vehicular accidents; as well as fall type accidents.  Including seat belt and air bag analysis.

Seat Belt Analysis: Engineering analysis of material evidence to determine if seat belts were operational, if occupants were wearing their seat belts, and if injuries may have been mitigated through the use of seat belts.

Accident Reconstruction: Reconstruction of automobile, heavy truck, bus, heavy equipment, tractor trailers, trains, motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrian accidents. This includes the analysis of accident events and physical evidence to determine causation, critical accident events, sequence of events, compliance with procedures, and injury mechanism.  Typical projects include vehicular, construction, and slip/trip & fall accidents.

Product Failure Analysis, analysis of specific projects with regard to materials failure, fatigue, corrosion, safety and design.

Computer based accident reconstruction and simulations, using EDCrash, PC Crash, EDSMAC, and physics based animation programs.

Crash testing, data acquisition, crush analysis and reduction.

Investigative services, Scene investigation, surveys, and drawings, skid analysis, photography, vehicle inspection, damage analysis, vehicle dynamics.

Photogrammetry of digital and scanned photos using a variety of CAD programs and Photomodeler to analyze skid patterns, crush depths, and accident scenes.

Finite element analysis, using state of the art mechanical modeling programs.

Human factor analysis, human perception and reaction time analysis.

Professional Affiliations

BMES, Biomedical Engineering Society
ASM, American Society for Metals
ISOES, International Society for Occupational Ergonomics Safety
ASSE, American Society of Safety Engineers
SAE, Society of Automotive Engineers
ACFEI, American College of Forensic Examiners International
AAAM, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine

Conference and Course Attendance

1997, National Biomedical Engineering Symposium. Seattle, WA

2000, RESNA, Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America Annual Meeting. Orlando, FL

Sept 29, 2002, The Biomechanics of Impact Course, Understanding the Limits of Human Tolerance

Sept 30 – Oct 2, 2002, 46th  Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine Annual Conference, Tempe, AR

Nov 11-Nov 15, 2002, Engineering Dynamics Corporation: Accident Reconstruction Course, Miami, FL

Jan 20–24, 2003, Engineering Dynamics Corporation: Simulation Course, Northridge, CA

Aug 22- Aug 24, 2003, Spine Research Institute of San Diego: CRASH 2003

March 22-March 26, 2004, Human Factors Course, IPTM, Jacksonville, FL
Fall Protection Certification course, ASSE, Pensacola, FL. May 20, 2004.

2004, Northwestern University Traffic Institute, Traffic Accident Investigation Course

July 2004, American College of Forensic Examiners International, Medical Investigator course. Atlanta, GA

Oct 24- Oct 27, 2004, 48th Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine Annual Conference, Key Biscayne, FL

March 7-9, 2005, Photo modeler Collision Reconstruction Course, Raleigh, NC

Publications

Available upon request

Presentations

Available upon request