NWTRB Board Member
Updated February 14, 2005

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Dr. B. John Garrick was appointed to the U.S. Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board as Chairman on September 10, 2004, by President George W. Bush.

Dr. Garrick is an executive consultant on the application of the risk sciences to complex technological systems in the space, defense, chemical, marine, transportation, and nuclear fields. He served for 10 years (1994-2004), 4 years as chair, on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Advisory Committee on Nuclear Waste. His areas of expertise include risk assessment and nuclear science and engineering. A founder of the firm PLG, Inc., Dr. Garrick retired as President, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer in 1997. Before PLG's acquisition and integration into a new firm, it was an international engineering, applied science, and management consulting firm.

Dr. Garrick was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1993, President of the Society for Risk Analysis 1989-90, and recipient of that Society's most prestigious award, the Distinguished Achievement Award, in 1994. He has been a member and chair of several National Research Council committees, having served as vice chair of the Academies' Board on Radioactive Waste Management and as a member of the Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources. He recently chaired the National Academy of Engineers Committee on Combating Terrorism. Among other National Academy committees he has chaired are the Committee on the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the Committee on Technologies for Cleanup of High-Level Waste in Tanks in the DOE Weapons Complex, and the Panel on Risk Assessment Methodologies for Marine Systems. Other Academy committee memberships included space applications, automotive safety, and chemical weapons disposal. He is a member of the first class of lifetime national associates of the National Academies.

Dr. Garrick has published more than 250 papers and reports on risk, reliability, engineering, and technology, has written several book chapters, and was editor of the text, The Analysis, Communication, and Perception of Risk.

Dr. Garrick received his Ph.D. in engineering and applied science from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1968. His fields of study were neutron transport, applied mathematics, and applied physics. He received an M.S. in nuclear engineering from UCLA in 1962, attended the Oak Ridge School of Reactor Technology in 1954-55, and received a B.S. in physics from Brigham Young University in 1952. He is a fellow of three professional societies: the American Nuclear Society, the Society for Risk Analysis, and the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in California.

Dr. Garrick lives in Laguna Beach, California.