Risk analysis consultants
     D. Warner North :: Overview

D. Warner North is president and principal scientist of NorthWorks, Inc., a consulting firm in Belmont, California, and consulting professor in the Department of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University. Over the past thirty years Dr. North has carried out applications of decision analysis and risk analysis for electric utilities in the US and Mexico, for the petroleum and chemical industries, and for government agencies with responsibility for energy and environmental protection.

Dr. North has served as a member and consultant to the Science Advisory Board of the US Environmental Protection Agency since 1978, and as a Presidentially appointed member of the US Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board (1989-1994). Dr. North is a co-author of many reports dealing with environmental risk for the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, including “Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process” (1983), “Improving Risk Communication” (1989), “Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment” (1994), and “Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society” (1996).

Dr. North was a member of the Board on Radioactive Waste Management of the National Research Council from 1995 until 1999. He was the chair for the steering and advisory committees for the International Workshop on the Disposition of High-Level Radioactive Waste, held November 4-5, 1999, and leading to the report, “Disposition of High-Level Waste and Spent Nuclear Fuel: The Continuing Societal and Technical Challenges,” published in June 2001.

Dr. North is a past president (1991-92) of the international Society for Risk Analysis, a recipient of the Frank P. Ramsey Medal from the Decision Analysis Society in 1997 for lifetime contributions to the field of decision analysis, and the 1999 recipient of the Outstanding Risk Practitioner Award from the Society for Risk Analysis.

Dr. North received his Ph.D. in operations research from Stanford University and his B.S. in physics from Yale University.

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Dr. North speaking at the podium of the Belgian Senate. Behind him is Senate President Anne-Marie Lizin, presiding. Photo taken April 18, 2006 at a Conference of the Organzation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which this year has Belgian presidency.




Teaching at Stanford University:
Winter Quarter, 2005
MS&E 290:
Public Policy Analysis


Dr. North is serving on the Panel on Public Participation in Environmental Assessment and Decision Making of the National Research Council.

In March of 2006 Dr. North was appointed to the Scientific and Technical Council of the International Risk Governance Council.

Dr. North is a member of the planning committee and speaker for the Naphthalene State of the Science Symposium October 8-12, 2006 in Monterey, California.



Dr. North participated in a Public Forum May 23-24, 2006 at the Cafritz Conference Center at George Washinton University in Washington D.C., organized by the Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), on the Risk Assessment Bulletin giving guidance for Federal Agency practice on risk assessment, proposed by the Office of Management.

Dr. North gave an invited presentation,"Energy Security in the Baltic Region: Issues Motivating Improvement in International Cooperation on Risk Governance" as part of a Conference, Security and Risk Management in Europe, of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)) in association with the International Risk Governance Council (IRGC), in the Senate of the Kingdom of Belgium, Brussels, April 18-19, 2006. The OSCE adopted a resolution on systemic risk management, with the IRGC to maintain "an ongoing relationship" to assist "for the formulation and implementation of a programme of actions under the auspices of the OSCE."

Dr. North was an invited speaker for the Risk Management Conference in Moscow March 1, 2006 organized by the Russian electric utility joint stock company, RAO-"United Energy Systems." His powerpoint slides for this conference are posted here. Dr. North gave a paper on energy security for Lithuania at the SEIF-IV Conference in Brussels November 16-18, 2005. He presented a similar paper more focused on analytical tools at the VNIIGAZ-GAZPROM meeting on risk management in Moscow February 1-2, 2006.

Dr. North gave the "State of the Science" paper on decision analysis, mutlicriteria decision analysis, and cost-benefit analysis at the Contemporary Concepts in Toxicology (CCT) Workshop on Probabilistic Risk Assessment, "Bridging Components Along the Exposure-Dose-Response Continuum," sponsored by the Society of Toxicology, Washington, D.C., July 25-27, 2005. SOT Website Page with Conference Presentations and Speaker Biographies.

Dr. North gave the keynote address at the First International Symposium on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Risk Methodology, organized by Tuskegee University under sponsorship from the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and the Society for Risk Analysis, Washington D.C., August 11-13, 2005. Conference Papers and Powerpoint Presentations.



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