Meet the TRAA Science Advisory Panel

The TRAA Science Advisory Panel is an ad hoc volunteer group of eight local scientists and engineers with extensive relevant experience with highly toxic chemicals including hydrogen fluoride:

Charles Clendening, Ph.D.
Dr. Charles Clendening completed his undergraduate work at the Case Institute of Technology in 1968, and earned his doctorate in physics from Cornell University in 1974. He has worked in high energy laser development for over thirty years, first for the United States Air Force and then for TRW, which later became Northrop Grumman. He is a past recipient of two TRW Chairman Awards for Innovation, and a TRW Distinguished Patent award. Dr. Clendening served as Chief Scientist at Northrop Grumman for the Air Force’s Airborne Laser Program and won the 2009 AIAA Plasmadynamics and Lasers Award. Charles resides in Torrance.

James Eninger, Ph.D., Editor of the TRAA Science Advisory Panel Blog
Dr. James Eninger retired in 2005 after a 33-year career at TRW in Redondo Beach. At TRW, he was a Senior Staff Engineer and Project Manager of programs that included safely dealing with hydrogen fluoride in the exhaust of high-energy chemical lasers. He holds a B.S.M.E. and an M.S. & Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, specializing in Fluid Mechanics and Physical Gasdynamics. He resides in Torrance and is a past member of the Torrance Refining Company Community Advisory Panel.

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Nahum Gat, Ph.D.
Dr. Nahum Gat is Founder and President at Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc. (OKSI), located in Torrance two miles directly east of the Torrance Refinery. Previously, he was the Section Head of Combustion Research at TRW in Redondo Beach (1978–1991). He served as an Army Officer (Captain) in the Israel Defense Force (1969–1974) and was a tank Battalion Commander and combat veteran of the Yom Kippur War as well as other conflicts. Dr. Gat earned his M.S. & Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering at University of Cincinnati (1973–1978) and his B.Sc. in Aeronautical Engineering at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology (1965–1969). Nahum runs marathons in his spare time.

George Harpole, Ph.D.
Dr. George Harpole holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the U.C.L.A. School of Engineering, Chemical, Nuclear, and Thermal Engineering Department. He has been Chief Engineer of two chemical laser systems at Northrop Grumman Corporation. He recently retired while holding the position of thermal engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope. He is the inventor, or co-inventor, of 15 U.S. Patents. He received two TRW Chairman’s Awards. George Harpole resides in Torrance.

Judith Scott, M.S., former manager,
— TRW Chemistry Technology Department
Judith Scott is a Chemist who spent 18 years of her career at TRW in Redondo Beach. For the eight years before retirement, she was Manager of the Chemistry Technology Department, a corporate-wide resource for chemical process development, materials and chemical characterization, contamination and failure analysis, and methods development for safety and environmental assessment. The Department also supported pilot-scale testing of rocket propellants, airbag technologies, and coal-cleaning processes. She was Program Manager for seven years for an Electric Power Research Institute contract for the sampling and analysis of utility pollutants. She previously worked for Shell Chemical Company and Arthur D. Little. She holds a B.A. in Chemistry from the College of Wooster (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.S. in Chemistry from Boston University. Judith resides in Torrance.

Christopher Shih, Ph.D.
Dr. Christopher Shih is a retired Chemical Engineer who worked at TRW in Redondo Beach from 1968 to 2002. Among numerous projects, he worked on EPA contracts that dealt with disposal of hazardous waste materials, including incineration of Agent Orange that contained traces of dioxin. He was one of the principal designers of the Sodium Azide Recovery Process at TRW’s airbag propellant manufacturing plant in Mesa, AZ, and retired as Director of Chemical and Materials Technology at TRW’s Center for Automotive Technology. Christopher earned his B.S. Chemical Engineering at UC Berkeley, and his Ph.D. Chemical Engineering at Stanford University. He resides in Torrance.