Darrell W. Pepper, Ph.D.
Professor and Director
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

ASME: Committee on Engineering Accreditation and co-chair for Water Quality, Drought, Human Health and Engineering Conference

Reflections and Directions

I remember my first introduction to ASME in 1964 when I was a high school senior. We had taken our senior trip to New York and the World’s Fair in May. I recall going to Tad’s Steakhouse in Times Square (when steaks were $1.99) and sitting next to a mechanical engineer attending an ASME meeting in New York. My friends and I became entranced as we listened to him tell us about the breath and depth of mechanical engineering and the myriad activities of its professional society. Upon graduation from high school, all of us enrolled as mechanical engineering students in the fall in our selected universities. I still keep in touch with my high school friends, and we still feel that it was the best decision and career choice we ever made.

Over the years, I have been involved in numerous activities ranging from chasing tornadoes (for the U.S. Dept. of Energy and Nuclear Regulatory Commission), dealing with hazardous releases into the atmosphere, to developing CFD algorithms for the national aerospace plane program and scramjet propulsion. Other diverse efforts have included working on nuclear waste problems for the Yucca Mountain Repository, groundwater transport of plutonium and tritium from the Nevada Test Site, solar powered airplanes and thin solar panels, giant Frisbees (world’s largest), and wind energy modeling for the western United States. In 2004 I spent a year as an ASME Congressional Fellow in the office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and became involved with water and contaminant issues while serving as her science and engineering advisor.

I couldn’t have picked a better discipline to study — the flexibility, yet demanding nature of mechanical engineering has given me the opportunity to pursue many different projects. During my early years with Du Pont, I even served as a forecast meteorologist, giving daily and weekly weather forecasts, and conducted the first set of plume predictions from Three Mile Island for the NRC and DOE.

Having been a member of ASME for many years, I have watched the organization evolve into a major internationally recognized and respected society. When ASME speaks, people listen — this is especially true on the “Hill,” the U.S. House and Senate. Recently ASME has begun to make serious inroads into such fields as nanotechnology, renewable energy, and transportation, to name just a few. ASME has enabled me to explore these new areas and become acquainted with world experts — the workshops and technical conferences sponsored by ASME have been, and continue to be, outstanding.

A very recent thrust by ASME is in the area of water quality, quantity, and new technologies. Issues regarding water have been a concern of civilization since the first humans appeared on the earth — this became readily apparent to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans as cities and regions began to be developed. Many countries have taken the availability of water for granted. However, the human race has begun to face serious problems regarding access to inexpensive, readily available water — this has been evident in regions of Africa for many years. A serious draught is currently underway in the western United States, and water shortages, including troubling issues involving quality, have become evident in nearly every state. Densely populated areas such as California and Florida are beginning to look at desalination, once felt to be too expensive, as the only option for sustainable water supply. As the world’s population continues to swell, the demand for clean and available water will escalate tremendously. This has clearly become noticeable in such countries as India and China.

ASME is now stepping up to the plate in an effort to help thwart potentially devastating water scenarios, and to share its members’ wealth of knowledge and skills in developing new strategies and technologies to better serve humankind. Stay tuned on this new direction for ASME — it will certainly be challenging and rewarding as we develop new approaches and skill sets on both national and global playing fields.