Teresa Melfi
Teresa has been involved in the welding industry for over 30 years with roles in the manufacture, design and application of welding consumables and processes. She supports the global welding community through her involvement in standards bodies and joint industry projects. She authors and reviews papers for technical journals and conferences, mentors young welders and graduate engineering students, and lectures on various aspects of welding. Her collaborations with designers, specifiers, owners, insurers and classification societies help to establish meaningful rules for welding. Teresa is a member of ASME BPV Section IX and is a USA technical advisor to international standardization groups on welding consumables and welding qualifications.
She currently Chairs the International Institute of Welding Technical Commission on Pipelines and Pressure Vessels, and the AWS A5 Committee on Filler Metal Standards. She holds numerous patents related to weldment fabrication, weld metal alloys, submerged arc fluxes, test methods, welding procedures and novel fabrication techniques.
Mike Rice
Mike Rice retired as the Senior Corporate Welding Engineer for Nooter Corporation. A graduate in Welding Engineering from LeTourneau University.
He has been in the welding industry for 39 years.
His first job after graduation was in the R&D laboratory for Newport News Shipbuilding developing an electro slag welding technique to join 11-inch-thick strut arms for aircraft carriers. He also developed and introduced to the shops and ships orbital pipe welding for both nuclear and non-nuclear piping applications. Later he managed the welding activities in the nuclear and non-nuclear pipe shops.
In 1990 he started working for Nooter Fabricators as a welding engineer on various pressure vessel projects and developed techniques for internal tube to tubesheet bore welding and hot-wire plasma arc overlay. As the Chief Welding Engineer, he represented Nooter Fabricators in a joint venture with a company in Malaysia.
In 2002 Mike became the project manager for Bechtel for the Waste Package Closure System at the Yucca Mountain Project. He was responsible for the design and building of a closure system requiring remote welding, NDE and material handling systems.
After completion of the closure system project, he returned to Nooter Corporation as the Senior Corporate Welding Engineer leading the welding programs within the Nooter family.
Mike has presented papers at national and international conferences dealing with applications of new welding materials and unique field repairs.
He is a member of AWS and the US TAG for ISO/TC 44/SC 10, Unification Requirements and ISO/TC 44/SC 11, Qualification Requirements for Welding and Allied Processes Personnel.
Mike is chairman of ASME Section IX, Subgroup Welding Qualifications, a member of Section IX, Welding, Section IX, Subgroup Plastic Fusion, Section VIII, Subgroup Fabrication and Inspection.
He is a member of NACE and NACE STG 02 Coatings and Linings committee.
Lynn Sturgill
Lynn is the owner and operator of Sturgill Welding & Code Consulting (SWCC), a privately-owned welding and engineering consulting company. Lynn has more than 30 years of experience in the manufacturing, welding, and inspection of metallic goods in the nuclear, aerospace, structural, petrochemical, military, food and dairy, and biopharmaceutical industries.
Lynn is a degreed engineer, an AWS Senior Certified Welding Inspector (SCWI), a 3-A Certified Conformance Evaluator (CCE) and an ASNT Level III Visual Testing (VT) Inspector (#141940). His technical expertise is the metallurgy and welding of steels, stainless steels, nickel alloys, aluminum alloys and pure metals. He has also authored papers on electron beam welding, gas-tungsten arc welding, failure analysis, and qualification issues. He has developed courses on Section IX of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code and has represented ASME internationally. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and has completed the course work for a Master’s Degree in Welding Engineering.
He has trained and qualified ASNT Level II and III VT examiners and inspectors for fabricators and pharmaceutical clients, respectively. He has also taught seminars on metallurgy, welding, stainless steels, high-purity welding, corrosion, and inspection requirements for various companies in the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, semiconductor, chemical processing, and microelectronics industries. He is an Adjunct Instructor for the American Welding Society (AWS), teaching the Certified Welding Inspector (CWI) seminar for fifteen years. In addition, he has qualified numerous welders and welding procedures to Section IX of the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code.
Lynn serves as a volunteer on numerous American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and AWS committees.
Walter Sperko
Walter Sperko had his first exposure to welding procedures at Ebasco Services in New York City where he supported piping and vessel designers when it came to welding of fossil-fueled, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants. Following that, he was weiding engineer for ITT Grinnell Industrial Piping in North Carolina and for its field errction activities, including WPS development, welder qualificaiton and piping fabrication-related research activities. He subsequently provided similar services for Richmond Engineering in manufacturing pressure vessels and storage tanks.
Since 1981 he has provided welding and metallurgical engineering, code consulting services and training for piping fabricators and contractors and pressure vesssel manufacturers worldwide. He has been an instructor for ASME’s continuing education department since 1983 teaching code users how to comply with ASME Section IX. He has also been an instructor for ASME’s piping seminars. He has published numberous articles on pipe welding quality issues and ASME Section IX. He is a past-chairman of the ASME Section IX committee.
