Gene Feigel Begins Term as ASME President (6/17/05)

Richard E. “Gene” Feigel, Ph.D., a resident of Tolland, Conn., and vice president of engineering at Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (Hartford, Conn.) has become the 124th president of ASME. His one-year term commenced during proceedings of the Society’s 2005 Summer Annual Meeting, June 11–15, in Philadelphia.

For more than 25 years, Feigel has been involved in a number of leadership positions within ASME’s technical standards development. He has served as chair of the ASME B31 Piping Main Committee, chair and senior vice president of ASME’s Council on Codes and Standards, and vice president of the Society’s Pressure Technology Codes and Standards, among other positions.

Gene Feigel

Feigel has actively promoted the globalization of ASME codes and standards at technical conferences and venues throughout the world. He has presented papers on risk assessment, quality assurance, power plant reliability, fatigue and stress analysis, and other aspects of pressure technology. Other papers and presentations have covered the topics of nuclear power plant construction and terrorism and homeland security.

Since 1977, Feigel has worked for Hartford Steam Boiler where he currently serves as vice president of engineering. In this capacity, he is responsible for risk analysis and consults with clients worldwide on strategies for risk mitigation, inspection, and maintenance of boilers and related pressure systems.

The commencement of Feigel’s tenure as ASME president comes at a time of significant change in the Society’s organizational structure and operations. “The new ASME will strengthen its global outreach and renew its commitment to early-career engineers and to industries of the present and future that employ our members,” said Feigel during his inaugural remarks. “My objective for the next twelve months is to help guide ASME through a critical period of change and redirection and to promote our profession’s rich heritage and dynamic history in this, the 125th anniversary year of ASME.”

Feigel, a fellow of ASME, is the recipient of several ASME honors and awards recognizing achievement and service in the engineering profession. They include the Dedicated Service Award (1999), the J. Hall Taylor Medal (1999), and the Melvin R. Green Codes and Standards Medal (2000). The ASME Hartford Section also named him Distinguished Engineer of the Year.

Gene Feigel attended Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.) where he received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1968. He went on to earn a master’s degree and doctorate in philosophy from Pennsylvania State University (University Park) in 1971 and 1984, respectively.



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