NEW YORK, Oct. 2, 2008 – Kenneth R. Balkey, P.E., a resident of Pittsburgh, and consulting engineer at Westinghouse Electric Company, will be honored by ASME for outstanding leadership and tireless effort in advancing the acceptance of ASME codes and standards within the United States and internationally through workshops, meetings and enhanced coordination.  He will receive ASME’s Melvin R. Green Codes and Standards Medal.

The medal honors the memory and extraordinary contributions of Melvin R. Green, an ardent supporter of industrial standards and longtime employee of the Society.  It recognizes outstanding contributions to the development, promulgation or management of documents, objects or devices used in ASME programs of technical codification, standardization and conformity assessment.  The award will be presented to Mr. Balkey during the 2008 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, which is being held in Boston, Oct. 31 through Nov. 6.

For over 36 years, Balkey has worked for the Westinghouse Electric Company in the nuclear power industry.  He is responsible for technical leadership in codes and standards and related regulatory requirements.  Balkey has extensive experience in major initiatives related to reliability and risk evaluations for nuclear and non-nuclear structures, systems and components.  He has produced more than 100 publications and documents relating to risk evaluations of the integrity of piping, vessels and structures, and the performance of components using state-of-the-art probabilistic assessment techniques.

For more than a decade he served as chair of major ASME research projects on risk-informed in-service inspection and testing that have had methods and results successfully implemented in nearly all U.S. reactors and in eight other countries.  He has been granted two patents related to a reactor vessel integrity monitoring system and for a method of optimizing risk-informed inspections of heat exchangers.

An ASME member, Balkey currently serves as vice chair of the Codes and Standards Board of Directors.  He is past vice president of ASME Nuclear Codes and Standards and past chair (2005-08) of the ASME Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards (BNCS). 

He collaborated with colleagues from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers (JSME) to conduct a historic JSME-ASME Workshop on Nuclear Codes and Standards in Nagoya, Japan, for the Japanese nuclear power industry in April 2007.  He also supported major nuclear codes and standards developments in China and the Republic of South Africa. 

Balkey also served as a senior technical advisor to the ASME Innovative Technologies Institute LLC, providing consultation on the development of guidance for Risk Analysis and Management for Critical Asset Protection (RAMCAP™) and working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  He actively participated, with leaders from the private sector, universities, federal agencies and key national associations, in a strategic Workshop on Critical Infrastructure Priorities held at the White House Conference Center in September 2002 at the invitation of the director, Office of Science and Technology Policy–Executive Office of the President.  He has also played an instrumental role in initiating the Pittsburgh Regional Business Coalition for Homeland Security and served as chair of the Steering Committee for the National Homeland Security Regional Forum in 2005.

Throughout his illustrious career, Balkey has received numerous honors and recognitions including the ASME Dedicated Service Award (1991), the Bernard F. Langer Nuclear Codes and Standards Award (2002), and a number of awards from Westinghouse and other associations.

Balkey earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering at the University of Pittsburgh in 1972 and 1980, respectively.  He is a registered professional engineer in Pennsylvania.

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences.  ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the global engineering and technology community.

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