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Dr. W. J. O'Donnell earned a B. S. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon
University where he received Machinery's Award as the outstanding designer in the graduating class. He was selected for the Advanced
Mechanics School at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories and the Bettis Doctoral Fellowship Program. He received his M.S. and Ph.D.
from the University of Pittsburgh.
Dr. O'Donnell worked in the interdisciplinary areas of metallurgy, engineering mechanics and mechanical design at Westinghouse Bettis Laboratory for twelve years. He assumed the lead role in the evaluation of structural integrity and component failure margins for the Consulting Engineers' Office. He progressed to Senior, Fellow and Advisory Engineer, responsible for the Structural Design Basis, which specified the stress, fatigue and fracture design criteria for power plant components and structures. In 1970 Dr. O'Donnell founded O'Donnell and Associates, an engineering consulting firm specializing in the design and analysis of structures and components, including components operating at high temperatures. The firm has done extensive work in the evaluation of structural integrity, including corrosion fatigue, flaw sensitivity, crack propagation, creep rupture and brittle fracture analyses. He has published 92 papers in professional journals in the areas of stress analysis methods, elevated temperature design and corrosion fatigue life evaluation methods. He is active in the development of national consensus standards for the design, fabrication and inspection of equipment and components. As an expert in equipment subjected to cyclic loads, he is Chairman of the Subgroup on Fatigue Strength of the ASME Code. He has published extensively in engineering mechanics, including elastic-plastic fracture mechanics, strain limits and damage evaluation methods. He has patents on mechanical processes and devices and has given invited lectures at conferences, research institutes and universities worldwide. He is a member of the Society of Experimental Mechanics, The Minerals, Metals &Materials Society (TMS), the Society for Experimental Mechanics, Sigma XI, American Society of Metals, American Society for Testing &Materials, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and is a Registered Professional Engineer. He received the National Pi Tau Sigma Gold Medal Award "For Outstanding Achievement in Mechanical Engineering." He received the ASME Award for the "Best Conference Technical Paper" in 1973 and again in 1988. He was named "Engineer of the Year" by the Pittsburgh Section of the ASME in 1988. He was awarded the national PVP Medal by the ASME in 1994. He received the University of Pittsburgh Mechanical Engineering Department's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and his vitae is listed in the Engineers Joint Council "Engineers of Distinction" and Marquis "Who's Who in the World." |
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