T. David Griffith

Dr. David Griffith received his Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then ranked number one in chemical engineering. After working in research on enhanced oil recovery (EOR), he and two friends started a small chemical company in Wisconsin specializing in furniture restoration products. Later, his career took a major shift when he developed a record-setting electronic data interchange (EDI) software package for his wife’s computer software consulting business, and provided support to users as far away as Australia. Now, he is doing what he enjoys most, teaching in the hydrocarbon processing industry.

 

In addition to technical papers based on his graduate school and industrial research, he also wrote and published the user manuals for his EDI software, with which users set implementation records with trading partners J.C. Penney’s and Marathon Oil.

 

Griffith says, “One would be amazed with the parallels between teaching students, reporting research results to associates, and supporting business customers over long distances.” Besides his background in chemical engineering, he was also mentored by one of the most outstanding statisticians in the world, who also had a B.S. and M.S. in chemical engineering along with an M.S. and Ph.D. in statistics. He also says that he tries to be practical and takes the approach of understanding processes instead of just working with equations.