ASME President, 1988-1989

Ernest L. Daman is chairman emeritus of the Foster Development Corporation, Livingston, N.J.  He is also chairman and chief executive officer of HDS Fibers, Inc., a high technology company developing metallic whiskers for composite materials.

Formerly senior vice president and director of research for Foster Wheeler Corporation, he joined the company in 1947.

His professional accomplishments include research on naval power plants; development of stream generators for a demonstration plant of the liquid-metal fast-breeder reactor; development of an air pollution control scheme for large power plants and development of fluidized bed combustion stream generators.

He became a member of the Foster Wheeler Corporation Management Council in 1983 and senior vice president for corporate research in 1980.

In 1976 Mr. Daman was elected chairman of the board of he Foster Wheeler Development Corporation and in 1973 assumed the duties of vice president for research, involving all corporate research and development activities and policies.

He became director of research, responsible for metallurgical, chemical and mechanical engineering research and development tasks in 1960 after serving as deputy director of research since 1954.

In 1953-1954, he worked as a project engineer in the Research Division of Foster Wheeler and was responsible for design and development of a combined steam-gas turbine plant for naval ships, a plant now used on special missile-carrying destroyers.

From 1950 until 1953, Mr. Daman represented Foster Wheeler at the Naval Boiler and Turbine Laboratory, Philadelphia, conducting tests on advance naval boiler plants.  He began his work at the company as an engineer in the Research division, engaged in development work on naval steam-generating systems.

A member of ASME since 1947 and a Fellow since 1980, he provided Corporate encouragement and support for many distinguished ASME leaders.  Active in the ASME research program since 1957, he served as a member of the ASME Board on Research and Technology Development and as Chairman of the Codes and Standards Research Planning Committee.  He was also instrumental in the establishment of the ASME Industry Advisory Board.

Mr.  Daman serves in many organizations concerned with energy conversion and materials properties. He is chairman of the Welding Research Council, chairman of the National Materials Property Data Network, Inc., a member of the assessment panel for standard reference data of the National Bureau of Standards, and a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Numerical Data Advisory Board.

He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1988.  He is a Fellow of the Institute of Energy (UK), a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (UK), and a member of Pi Tau Sigma and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  The author of many papers, he holds 15 patents.

A resident of Westfield, N.J., he is the founder of the Westfield Area Committee for Human Rights, a former trustee of the Community Development Corporation and of the Westfield Boys Baseball League, and currently a trustee of the Center School, Warren, N.J.

He received a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1943.  Entering the U.S. Army in 1944, he served with the 77th Division in the Pacific.