Professional Experience & Projects

Dr. North's specialties are decision analysis; risk assessment and risk management; research and development planning; public policy analysis; analysis of environmental issues; modeling of complex engineering, economic, and ecological systems.

Government Service Service as a member of an advisory board or as a part-time employee for United States Federal and State government agencies. Consulting projects for US and foreign government agencies are listed below on this page.

The National Academies: The National Research Council, The National Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Engineering, The Institute of Medicine Assignments for the National Research Council and the National Academies.

Stanford University Teaching and university research

Charles River Associates Consultant on project to explore intelligible principles for setting national ambient air quality standards, following the May 1999 remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit of the 1997 EPA ozone and particulate matter standards.

Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board Invited presentation on decision making under uncertainty at NWTRB meeting, January 25, 2000.

Electric Power Research Institute Workshop participant and co-author of a report in preparation on performance confirmation for the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.

Fluor Hanford, Inc. Member, Project Advisory Group, for the President of Fluor-Hanford, M&O contractor for the DOE Hanford Facility.

Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics, Moscow Guest lecturer on risk and decision analysis and review of academic curriculum, under sponsorship of the World Bank.

Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Consultant for a major decision on water treatment for the Boston metropolitan area.

Chemical Manufacturers Association Consultant to the Ethylene Oxide Industry Council on integration of new scientific data into risk assessment.

Grocery Manufacturers Association Appearance before State of California scientific advisory groups regarding "authoritative bodies" provisions of Proposition 65.

National Science Foundation (NSF), with cosponsorship from major oil and chemical companies Principal investigator, case studies on ingested arsenic and dieldrin to illustrate methods for improving carcinogen risk assessment and value of information analysis.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Project supervisor for Decision Focus participation in the Tulane University-led Consortium for Environmental Risk Evaluation Phase I review of risks from the DOE nuclear weapons complex.

Government of Mexico Project supervisor for analyses on air quality and emissions control issues for the Secretary of Energy, Mines, and State-owned Industry (SEMIP).

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Project leader or supervisor, development and applications of decision frameworks for acid deposition, coal combustion by-products, and ambient air quality standards.

Utility Air Regulatory Group (UARG) Development and presentation of testimony to the EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee on the health impacts of particulate matter and of sulfur dioxide.

Office of Policy Analysis, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Consultant on risk assessment methodology for major EPA cross-media studies of Santa Clara Valley and Denver.

Office of Toxic Substances, EPA Project leader, development of methodology to set priorities for testing and selecting regulatory strategy for toxic chemicals.

U.S. Department of Energy Consultant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Gas Programs on program strategy for enhanced oil recovery programs.

American Bar Association, Special Committee on Energy Law Consultant to committee for DOE study on state decision making for electric power facilities.

Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory Principal investigator, decision analysis application to federal R&D strategy on magnetic fusion.

Environmental Assessment Department, EPRI Project leader, development of a research planning format for EPRI environmental research.

Solar Energy Research Institute Principal investigator, development of integrating methodology for photovoltaics venture analysis to evaluate DOE commercialization strategy.

Major chemical company Consultant on regulatory and research strategies for a proprietary agricultural chemical product.

Major oil company Analysis of environmental and health impacts of a process to make synthetic liquid fuels from coal.

Office of Fossil Energy, ERDA Project leader for Market Oriented Program Planning Study (MOPPS), a major analytical support effort to assist a federal task force in assessing implications of the potential new twentieth century energy technologies and in recommending appropriate budgetary priorities to ERDA top management.

Society for Risk Analysis President, 1991-2.

Society for Risk Analysis Chair, Advisory Board, 1998-2000.

Invitational Workshop on Ecological Risk Management Sponsored by the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Foundation for Environmental Education, Williamsburg, VA (1997).

Workshop on Bioterrorism Sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Monterey Institute for International Studies (November 2001).

Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment (TERA, Cincinnati, Ohio) Workshop on Risk Characterization of Non-lethal Weapons, carried out by for the DOD Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program. (May 2001).

Division of Fossil Energy, ERDA Project leader, establishment of priorities of R&D programs on fossil energy technologies, including coal gasification, synthetic liquids from coal and shale, and advanced fossil fueled electric generation technologies.

Jet Propulsion Laboratory and NASA Project leader or supervisor of four projects, assessment of probability of biological contamination from interplanetary space missions.

Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture Project leader or supervisor of five projects, analysis of policy on wildland fire protection, including evaluation of large computer models for fire simulation and resource management.

National Science Foundation Principal investigator, development of a framework to compare economic, environmental, health, and safety impacts of coal and nuclear electric generation.

Office of Management and Budget and Interagency Task Force on Synthetic Fuels Commercialization Project supervisor and principal investigator, evaluation of the environmental impacts, cost-benefit analysis of strategic program alternatives, and projections of synthetic fuel supply and demand.

National Caries Program, National Institutes of Health Project supervisor, analysis of R&D project selection.

Department of Defense Principal investigator, conceptual design and illustrative application of system for allocating information-gathering resources.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Project leader, analysis of U.S. policy on hurricane modification.

Private Client Consultant to top level corporate task force on major gas turbine product strategy decision, including carrying out market analysis of utility decision to buy product offering.

Comision Federal de Electricidad, Government of Mexico Analysis of nuclear power and electric capacity expansion decisions; development of electric utility capacity expansion model.

Professional Seminars and Presentations Over fifty seminars in decision analysis, risk assessment, capital expenditure analysis, and related subjects for analysts and executives in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Invited presentations, lectures, and testimony for a variety of professional societies, conferences, academic audiences, public utility commissions, Congressional committees, and other legislative bodies.