Dr. Allen Selz is President of Pressure Sciences Incorporated, which he founded in January 1989. He is a specialist in pressure vessel and piping design and analysis, fracture mechanics, fatigue, and failure analysis, with over 40 years of experience. He has had extensive experience in conceptual and detail design and analysis, testing and fabrication. This has been with a wide variety of mechanical and electro-mechanical systems and components that are intended to meet rigid nuclear and industrial performance and safety requirements.

Over the past twenty-eight years he has designed and analyzed many standard and non-standard pressure vessels, applying the rules of Section VIII, Divisions 1 and 2 of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code.

Previously at O'Donnell & Associates, Inc., from 1978 until 1988, Dr. Selz conducted safety and failure analyses of nuclear and non-nuclear equipment, and was responsible for O'Donnell's extensive efforts in recertification, or requalification of pressure vessels and pressure systems which had been used for many years at the NASA Lewis Research Center and in various industrial applications.

Dr. Selz spent twenty-one years with Westinghouse Electric Corporation, where he designed nuclear control rod drive mechanisms and reactor core components, managed the design and development of a series of full scale nuclear rocket engine cores for the Nerva Project, developed prototype radioisotope power systems, and was responsible for the design of reactor vessels for the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor (LMFBR) Program.

Dr. Selz received a B.S. from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1953, an M.S. from CMU in 1954, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1967, all in Mechanical Engineering. He is the originator of over twenty invention disclosures and patents, and has published numerous technical papers. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in four states, and is a member of Pi Tau Sigma, the American Society of Safety Engineers, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Also very active in ASME Pressure Vessel Code Committee work, Dr. Selz is a member of the ASME Main Committee, the Subcommittee on Design, the Subcommittee on Pressure Vessels and its Subgroup on Design, and is Chairman of its Special Working Group on Toughness. He is also a member of the Subgroup on Toughness, and a member and former Chairman of the Special Working Group on Bolted Flanged Joints. He was Chairman of the Working Group on Noncircular Vessels until it completed its work in 1991. Also, he was elected to the new Main Committee of the Post-Construction Code for in-service pressure vessels.

Dr. Selz was Chairman of the 1700-member Pittsburgh Section of the ASME during the 1995-1996 period. He is listed in Who's Who in the East, and was named Engineer of the Year for 1990 by the Pittsburgh Section. Pressure Sciences was named Company of the Year for the Pittsburgh Section of ASME for 1997.

ASME B&PV Code Involvement:

Mail to: (aselz@press-sci.com)

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