Contact Information for Dr. Van D. Romero

Mailing Address:

Dr. Van D. Romero

R&ED Office - Brown Hall

New Mexico Tech

801 Leroy Place

Socorro, NM 87801

E-mail: van.romero@nmt.edu

Phone: 575-835-5646

Dr. Van Romero serves as chief official of the New Mexico Tech Research Division responsible for the encouragement, leadership, and support of research at the Institute and for the administrative and policy making activities of the division; offers dynamic research and administrative leadership to stimulate, coordinate, and provide support for the research at New Mexico Tech; acts as advocate for research within the Institute.

He serves as director of the Geophysical Research Center; manages the research support functions of the Research Division; serves as the Institute's representative and on-campus administrator for the Waste-Management Education and Research Consortium.

He acts as an external advocate and representative for New Mexico Tech's research activities; serves as mentor to new faculty to help them establish their research programs at the Institute; strongly encourages diversity and affirmative action; identifies research opportunities and actively encourages development of interdisciplinary research at the institute; ensures that high quality proposals are submitted by the Institute.

Education

Ph.D., Physics, State University of New York, 1991

M.S., Physics, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1979

B.S., Physics, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1977

Current Funded Research Activities

• Experimental verification of the alpha-omega effect for galaxy formation with Los Alamos National Laboratories.
• Develop groundwater activation model that can be used to optimize the design for acceleration production of tritium with DOE.
• Seismic source investigation, modeling and characterization of currently deployed explosive sources, design and computational testing of improved explosive sources, experimental verification and validation of improved sources - Western Geophysical (students - recruiting, post-doc and graduate in Geophysics).
• Resusable blast test fixture, investigate explosive impact on wide-body aircraft with FAA.

Courses Taught

Graduate and undergraduate courses in Solid State Physics and Particle Physics for the Physics Department

Course in Explosives Surety for the Chemical Engineering Department

Patents Held

Procedure to study Bubble Evolution by correcting scattered LASER light and dynamic pressure signals

Professional Memberships

• American Physical Society
• Sigma XI
• Health Physics Society

Previous Experience

1995-1997: Director, Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center, New Mexico Tech.

Direct and manage a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, engineers, and staff involved in RDT&E programs in energetic materials. EMRTC provides a working laboratory for conducting research in support of both government and commercial programs in the areas of ordnance, explosives, propellants and other energetic materials. Facilities include over 30 separate test sites, gun ranges and research labs located within a 32 square mile field laboratory. Developed and implemented counter-terrorist program that benefits research and academic programs.

1994 - 1995: Senior Member Technical Staff, Sandia National Lab, Albuquerque, NM.

Conducted Environmental Impact Assessment for Medical Isotope Production program. Program consisted of converting weapons program facility to produce radio-isotopes for medical usage.

1993 - 1994: Deputy Director of Environmental, Safety and Health Oversight; Manager, Hazardous Waste Programs, Superconducting Super Collider, Dallas, TX.

Developed and implemented radiation protection policies compatible with DOE orders and CFR regulations, performed liaison activities with DOE, and provided technical direction to radiation and hazardous waste program. Responsible for the development and review of radiation transport calculations, shielding design, health physics procedures, mixed waste procedures, and environmental monitoring activities. Served as Chairman of the Laboratory's ALARA committee and member of DOE's R&D Laboratory Working Group (RADWG) Health Physics Procedures Committee.  Responsible for RCRA compliance during project closure.

1979 - 1993: Manager, Thermal Hydraulic Programs, General Electric Knolls Atomic Power Lab, Schenectady, NY.

Responsible for both the technical and personnel management of the group. Key participant in the long term planning and direction of both the research and the facilities construction and maintenance. Group responsibilities included thermodynamic and materials testing and analysis of fuel channels, steam generators, and in-core materials. This work determined the thermodynamic limits for the nuclear reactor which will power the next generation submarine scheduled for delivery at the turn of the century. In previous work as Lead Engineer, was responsible for the experimental fluid mechanics effort and developed LASER instrumentation and techniques for flow visualization and quantitative flow measurements. Additional experience includes the development, execution, and analysis of environmental impact testing of nuclear sub marines which includes radiation transport analysis, neutron detection, and gamma ray spectroscopy.