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David S. Gromala, P.E.
Director of Codes and
Product Acceptance
Weyerhaeuser |
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"As a professional engineer, I value the consensus standards process as a means by which all facets related to real-world applications will be debated and resolved." |
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Who is your current employer and what is your current position? |
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I am the director of codes and product acceptance for Weyerhaeuser, an international forest products company. |
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Where did you obtain your undergraduate/ graduate degree(s) and in what fields? |
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I have my B.S. in civil engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., and my M.S. in structural engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. |
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When and why did you become involved in ASTM International? |
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I joined ASTM while employed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Products Laboratory because I needed to learn more about the nuances of test methods for wood products. |
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In which committees are you active? Are you a committee officer; if so, what group or groups? |
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I've been very active in ASTM Committee D07 on Wood since the mid-1970s as a member, a subcommittee chair and task group chair. I also participate in the work of Committees D20 on Plastics and E06 on Performance of Buildings. |
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How do you apply ASTM standards in your work? |
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I apply ASTM standards on a daily basis because we follow many ASTM standards as our test protocols. In addition, we use ASTM standards to generate safe and reliable design recommendations for our structural products. |
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Apart from using standards, are there advantages to participating in standards development? |
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As a professional engineer, I value the consensus standards process as a means by which all facets related to real-world applications will be debated and resolved. As an engineer, I seek to maximize public safety. And, as a manufacturer, I need to balance safety with affordability so that people can use products safely, but can also afford them! |
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What are some of your favorite aspects of your job? |
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The favorite part of my job in the standards development arena is to find a resolution to a seemingly insurmountable problem. I do not simply mean solving via compromise -- I mean creatively solving it in a way that makes every participant feel like a winner and agreeing that we have an excellent solution! |
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Are there advantages that you can identify that result from having an understanding of standards? |
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As one begins to develop the skills and discipline required to read and to develop standards, one finds that these skills relate to other parts of daily life as well. For example, if you can carefully read and understand ASTM standards, you will have fewer problems doing your own income tax returns. You will be way ahead of the typical homebuyer when you read and understand your sales and mortgage contracts. You will even have a better understanding of the difficulties that our legislators face when they try to write laws that benefit society! I'll bet that you didn't realize how "transferable" these skills might be. |
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Are there any words of wisdom that you can offer to professionals starting out in your field? |
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If you work in a field that relies on standards—and most of us do—become a member of the standards development organization so that you can vote on modifications and reapprovals. Just reading the meeting minutes will give you a huge insight into the intent behind the provisions. But if you plan to attend the standards meetings, plan to come as an active participant rather than simply as an observer. Participants find the meetings to be challenging. Observers tend to find them boring.
2006
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