Dr. Greg Kusinski
Team Lead Regulatory Affairs – Chevron GOM
Dr. Kusinski is a team lead for Chevron Gulf of Mexico Regulatory Affairs, where he leads regulatory strategy development and engagements for approval of major capital projects, technology qualification and acceptance. He has over 25 years of industry experience and has worked in various corporate capacities focusing on major capital project execution, management of industry consortia and joint ventures, regulatory and policy interpretation, technology development, technology commercialization, and technology deployment. He received B.S. (High Honors), M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Engineering from University of California at Berkeley where he also completed the Management of Technology program. He earned an Executive MBA from Rice University with focus on Corporate Strategy and Finance (top Honors – Jones Scholar). Dr. Kusinski serves the industry through several industry leadership positions.
Michelle Roberson
General Manager – Process Safety at Shell
Ms. Roberson leads Shell’s central, global team with the mandate to set standards, requirements and fit-for-purpose best practices to deliver Process Safety Excellence. Accountable for deep technical safety expertise, work process excellence, and business support resources. My team’s value is proven through technically accurate and efficient support of businesses, projects, and technology. Our experts sit on or chair many external industry committees. She started as a front-end design engineer, working in chemicals, plastics, and pharmaceuticals units at Hoechst Celanese. Joined LyondellBasell in 1998 and progressed through various roles management roles. Joined Shell in 2012 and have worked in Washington State, Houston, and The Hague. She holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering, BSc – TAMU (‘92) and an MBA – TAMU CC (‘00).
Professor Stratos Pistikopoulos
Director, Texas A&M Energy Institute, Dow Chemical Chair, University Distinguished Professor, Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering Texas A&M University
Professor Pistikopoulos is the Director of the Texas A&M Energy Institute and holds the Dow Chemical Chair Professorship in the Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University. He was a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London, UK (1991-2015) and a former Director of its Centre for Process Systems Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Carnegie Mellon University and he worked with Shell Chemicals in Amsterdam before joining Imperial. He has authored or co-authored over 550 major research publications in the areas of modelling, control and optimization of process, energy and systems engineering applications, 15 books and 3 patents. A co-founder of Process Systems Enterprise (PSE) Ltd (now Siemens PSE), he is a Fellow of AIChE and IChemE and the current Editor-in-Chief of Computers & Chemical Engineering. He is a past Chair of the Computing and Systems Technology (CAST) Division of AIChE and served as a trustee of the Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE) Organization (2014-2019). Prof. Pistikopoulos was a co-recipient of the prestigious Mac Robert Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2007, the recipient of the Computing in Chemical Engineering Award of CAST/AIChE in 2013, the IChemE’s Sargent Medal in 2020, and the AIChE’s Sustainable Engineering Forum Award in 2021. He received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University Politehnica of Bucharest in 2014, and from the University of Pannonia in 2015. He was elected a Member of the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas (TAMEST) in 2021. In 2013, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK. In 2022, he received The Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award for Research, and in 2023, he was named a University Distinguished Professor, at Texas A&M.
Rebecca Peterson
Senior Principle Engineer – Process Safety at ExxonMobil
Rebecca Peterson is a Senior Principal Engineer for Process Safety with ExxonMobil Technology and Engineering Company. She has 28 years of experience supporting refining, chemical manufacturing, and midstream operations across a variety of roles. In every role, her commitment to ensuring safe process operations has never wavered.
A native of Montana, Rebecca has a BS in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University and resides in the Houston area.
Dr. S. A. Abbasi
CSIR Emeritus Professor at the Center for Pollution Control and Environmental Engineering – Pondicherry University
Prof S. A. Abbasi has been a full university professor and centre director during 1987-2015 and is an Emeritus Professor since then. Prior to it he was Head-in-charge of the Water Quality & Environment Division at the Centre for Water Resources, Kozhikode (1979-87), and a Visiting-cum-adjunct Professor at California State University (1984-1987). He has also been a Visiting Professor at the universities of Minnesota, Florida, California−Berkeley, Malaya and Al-Ahsa.
With 46 books, over 400 papers in indexed journals, 10 patents, over 20,300 citations and a Hirsch Index currently at 78, Prof Abbasi is among the world’s foremost experts in the fields of process safety and environmental engineering. In the recent Stanford University study, he was ranked among the world’s top 0.5% scientists, and the latest AD Scientific rankings puts him among the India’s top two in environmental science & engineering.
Among numerous coveted honours and awards received by him are the National Design Award in Environmental Engineering, the IPCL award for Safety and Hazard Management in Petroleum Industries, the National Hydrology Award, the International Desalination Association’s prize, and fellowships of the National Academy of Sciences and the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. Prof Abbasi is also well-known for his poetry (ghazal and geet), fiction, and his work on fostering inter-faith harmony. Details of his oeuvre can be had at https://vidwan.inflibnet.ac.in/profile/61966.
Krish Thiagarajan Sharman
Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Endowed Chair in Renewable Energy
Krish Thiagarajan Sharman is an Endowed Chair in Renewable Energy & Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a PhD in Naval Architecture and Marine engineering from the University of Michigan, and has been an academic at various universities in Australia and the US over the past 25 years. He is a Fellow of the SNAME since 2016, and was selected as the Faculty Advisor of the Year Award in 2016. He is the coordinator of the Ocean Renewable Energy Symposium of the OMAE conference along with serving in the co-chair role of the IOWTC conference. His areas of interest focus on design and fluid-structure interaction analysis of floating offshore wind systems, wave and tidal energy systems, coastal food production systems and offshore platforms in general.
Katherine A. Lemos
Principal, DaVinci Tech Performance, LLC
Katherine A. Lemos, Ph.D., Principal of DaVinci Tech Performance, L.L.C., is a life-long safety and operations professional, an expert in accident investigation and prevention, decision-making, and safety management systems. She is recognized for her innovative and strategic approaches leveraging advances in analytics and autonomy, with a documented record of turning new technologies into solutions trusted by operators, overseers, and the public they serve.
Throughout her career in government and industry, Dr. Lemos has focused on improving safety and efficiency for individuals and organizations. She has contributed individually as a researcher, professor, technical expert and leader in managing programs and initiatives, bringing strategic consensus and order to efforts that result in tangible outcomes.
Dr. Lemos previously served as a senate-confirmed Chairperson and Board Member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), and before this, as Program Director for Northrop Grumman Corporation’s Aerospace Sector, driving performance improvements across the product life cycle and value stream. Previously, she was a technical leader and program manager for research and continued operational safety in Aircraft Certification and Aviation Safety at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). She also worked for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as Senior Human Performance Investigator in Aviation Safety and Special Assistant to the Vice Chairman, providing counsel across all NTSB transportation domains.
In academia, Dr. Lemos focused her research on decision-making in aviation and medicine, studying the influence of information and technology on beliefs and behaviors to yield safe outcomes more reliably during risky, time-limited, and uncertain conditions. She conducted applied research to balance the strengths of technology and humans for optimal performance. Her research and expertise have been applied across transportation and industrial domains.
Dr. Lemos earned a B.B.A. from Belmont University, a M.S. from California Lutheran University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, and she continues her role as a professor teaching and mentoring.
