About the Authors

Dr. Joseph F. Louvar is a chemical engineer specializing in chemical process safety. As a director of BASF’s chemical engineering department (which produces specialty chemicals) he managed the implementation and maintenance of five processes for handling hazardous chemicals. These processes were covered by Chemical Process Management. He recently retired early from BASF and is now a professor at Wayne State University, where he teaches chemical process safety, risk assessment, and the design of experiments. He is also conducting research in the area of experimental safety. Dr. Louvar is the author of many safety-related publications and the co-author of two books, Chemical Process Safety and Health and Environmental Risk Analysis. Dr. Louvar has been the chair of the Loss Prevention Committee and the Safety and Health Division. He is currently the chair of the Undergraduate Education Committee of CCPS.

Dr. Daniel A. Crowl is the Herbert H. Dow Professor for Chemical Process Safety in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan Technological University. He is the author of Guidelines for Consequence Analysis of Chemical Releases, published by AICHE. He is the editor (with S. S. Grossel) of the Handbook of Highly Toxic Materials Handling and Management, published by Marcel Dekker, and Inherently Safer Chemical Processes—A Life Cycle Approach, published by AICHE. He also contributed a section on vapor dispersion in Perry’s Chemical Engineer’s Handbook, 8th edition.

Professor Crowl has an active research program on flammability and reactivity and has published numerous papers in these areas. He serves on several AICHE/CCPS committees, including the Undergraduate Education Committee, the Technical Steering Committee, the Inherent Safety Committee, and the Risk Assessment Committee. He is also a member of the advisory committee for the Institute for Safety Through Design of the National Safety Council.