Finger Lakes Chapter presents “A Systems Approach to Mitigating High Consequence Safety and Security Events” by William J Toth, Ph.D.
William J. (Bill) Toth is retired from a 35-year career in the Oak Ridge, TN area, primarily working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as a systems engineer and manager. Bill is currently working on initiatives that more fully develop his ideas regarding an integral approach to safety and security in high-consequence industries.
Bill started as an electrical and electronics systems engineer working in the aerospace industry at General Dynamics in Ft Worth. He was responsible for development of a crash recorder system for the F-16 and F-111 fighter jet and bomber and other avionics systems. After five years in Texas, he and his wife returned to their home in East Tennessee to raise their family. Here he took a position at the Y-12 National Security Complex working on facility security and life safety systems. In this context he finished his master’s degree in Industrial Engineering. In 1996 he “volunteered” to be a part of a team working on nuclear security issues in Russia under the Nunn-Lugar initiative. The program moved to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) where he continued this work for nearly 25 years, traveling not only to Russia but around the world protecting nuclear and radiological material. He completed his PhD in Organizational Systems where his research interest was organizational dysfunction leading to high consequence events such as espionage, mass-killings, and high-consequence industrial accidents. At ORNL, he was a group lead and program manager and retired in 2021. Bill’s wife, Cathy, runs a successful software testing business, for which Bill serves as executive coach. They have three children, two of which are engineers, that live in various parts of the country. Bill and Cathy live now somewhat quietly with an energetic chocolate Labrador retriever that they rescued during the Covid lock-down.
Attendees need to pre-register. To register, send an email to [email protected]
The zoom link will be sent out a few days before the meeting.