Dr. Mentzer had more than a dozen assignments during a 28-year career with ExxonMobil in oil & gas operations, major project design, financial planning, public affairs, and safety / health / environment / security. He then joined the Mary Kay O'Connor Process Safety Center within the Department of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University where he taught the senior-level Chemical Process Safety and Oil & Gas Processing courses for eight years. He oversaw ten graduate students with research focusing on process safety management & metrics, risk assessment, safety culture & resilience, downhole drilling safety, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) safety and fire-related studies. Dr. Mentzer has been actively engaged on committees with a variety of industry associations, such as API, OGP, UKOOA and the Center for LNG.
Dr. Mentzer currently serves as the Executive Director of the Purdue Process Safety & Assurance Center. His research interests are in the area of process safety - how to prevent major industrial incidents such as Bhopal, Deepwater Horizon, risk and hazard analyses applicable to a variety of industries. His interests include engineering education.
