Alumnus Appointed CTO of PetroBeam

Walter Chappas (M.S. '77 and Ph.D. '79, nuclear engineering) has been promoted to Chief Technology Officer at PetroBeam, Inc., a developer of high energy electron beam processing techniques used to upgrade heavy oil and bitumen. A leader in the fields of radiation chemistry and radiation processing, he has been a consultant to the United Nation's International Atomic Energy Agency and a technical advisor to the governments of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, and Ecuador. Before his career in industry, Chappas worked at UMD in the 1980s, serving as the Director of the Electron Linear Accelerator Facility, the Associate Director of the Laboratory for Radiation and Polymer Science, and the Director for Radiation Facilities.

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Published February 10, 2009