James G. Faller

Jim retired in 2006 from the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center (ATC), where he last served as Sr. Engineer and Team Leader of Modeling and Simulation. He received a BSChE degree from WVU in 1959. He has worked for private industry, academia, and the U.S. military. As Sr. Materials Engineer at Boeing Vertol during the Vietnam War, he analyzed helicopter component failures, which earned him a company nomination as Pennsylvania Industrial Scientist of the Year. In 1974 he joined the engineering faculty of the U.S. Naval Academy as Assistant Professor of ME and for the next two years taught materials science to midshipmen. He worked at a senior engineer/scientist level for the Army Ballistics Research Lab, the Naval R&D Center and the ATC, conducting self-directed research ranging from pulsed laser target interaction to dynamic modeling of material systems. While with the Naval R&D Center, Jim became an unpaid advisor on submarine materials and new construction to Congressman Gillespie Montgomery, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. At the ATC he was selected by the parent Test and Evaluation Command as a technical agent for composites and as chairman of the Pressure Measurements Committee. He co-developed a sensor for transient convective heat flux to assess potential skin burns in explosive environments and patented a mechanical gauge for high pressure measurements in gun tubes. Jim also ventured into his own business, co-founding a materials consulting company (F&F Associates) and co-developing an oil additive product (Energy) for sale overseas. Both companies were terminated upon his retirement.

He received an MSChE (1963) and a PhD in Applied Science (1967) from the University of Delaware and was a registered P.E. With his wife Catherine, he funded a scholarship in ChE at WVU. Jim was born and raised in Wheeling, WV.