RIS > Staff Directory

Staff Directory

RIS Corp. was founded in 1992 to bring advanced environmental monitoring technologies from the research lab to the marketplace. RIS Corp. designs and manufactures electronics and detector systems for the physics research and environmental survey communities. A complementary team of technical and business professionals manage company operations with over 200 years of design development, engineering and marketing experience.

rtodd@ris-corp.com	President Richard Todd, Ph.D,. is an electronic design engineer and President of RIS Corporation. His education includes a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Current research includes the design and manufacturing of a low-noise amplifier and data acquisition system for use with a high resolution germanium detector array using Eurisys Clover detectors. In conjunction with physics researchers, RIS Corp. has produced over 7000 preamplifier channels for the PHENIX Muon ID Subsystem at Brookhaven National Laboratory. His main interest is in the area of analog and digital circuit design (both discrete and monolithic) with particular emphasis on nuclear radiation detection. He has authored and/or co-authored over 30 papers in the area of instrumentation and circuit design and has designed over 25 integrated circuit chips including dielectrically-isolated bipolar, CMOS, and gallium-arsenide (GaAs) technologies. He holds three patents, an IR-100 award, and received a Martin Marietta Energy Systems Inventor Award (1986) while at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He has designed several successful instruments based on pulse shape discrimination circuitry as well as a line of electronics for silicon strip detectors.



steve.berridge@ris-corp.com	Steve Berridge is a Senior Systems Engineer with comprehensive experience developing, designing and producing precision scientific instruments, military equipment, and commercial products to meet research and customer requirements. Steve has an extensive background in both digital and analog circuit design, simulation, testing, and debugging, as well as in pcb layout and mechanical design. His expertise ranges from hardware, firmware, software design, and integration. While with the University of Tennessee Physics Department, he designed, built and implemented the world’s first silicon-based Luminosity Monitor (a $500k subsystem of the $50M SLD detector), which has since been replicated by several of the world’s largest detectors at CERN. He has worked with various types of detectors, electronics and data acquisition systems for numerous physics experiments at facilities such as SLAC, Fermilab, and KamLAND (Kamioka, Japan). Steve has successfully managed several large-scale projects from proposal through conceptual design and budgeting to implementation and deployment.



blalock@ris-corp.com	Senior Design Engineer Allen Blalock is the RIS analog guru with over 22 years experience in engineering systems and sensors that measure and/or detect acoustic vibration, temperature, velocity, force, pressure, flow, gas and radiation. Allen's nuclear power safety experience includes project engineering for plant vibration monitoring systems. His experience at ORNL includes design and development of hardware for a NASA feasibility project to rapidly determine launch-related damage and development of a precision flow measurement system for international reactor re-flood studies. His medical monitoring experience includes design and development of a non-contact carbon dioxide gas monitoring system. Allen also brings medical imaging expertise that includes hardware design of multi-channel gamma scintillation position and time sensing measurement systems for positron emission tomography (PET). Allen is experienced in attainment of UL Listing and CE Marking for various electronic products. His responsibilities at RIS include board-level electronic hardware and firmware design engineering. Allen has authored and/or contributed to a number of technical publications and is inventor on two US Patents.



mrmason@ris-corp.com	Engineering Geophysicist, Michael Mason, has returned from his year-long military assignment in Iraq. Major Mason is a retired engineer officer from the Army Corps of Engineers and was reactivated in December 2006. Michael is a Certified Environmental Specialist and a Registered Professional Geologist. He has an MS in Geophysics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a BS in Geology from Old Dominion University. His professional experience includes civil and environmental engineering; environmental investigation, mapping, instrumentation, and sampling (nuclear, unexploded ordnance, and hazardous/toxic waste); surveying and cartography; construction and demolition; project management and controls; and quality assurance (ISO 9000 series and NQA-1). Michael has written several novels and is conversational in both German and Italian.



cmcteer@ris-corp.com	Cathy McTeer is the RIS Corp. Office Administrator with over 18 years of administrative experience in medical, manufacturing, and distribution facilities. Cathy is responsible for the daily accounting and office operations including purchasing, personnel, records control and correspondence. In her free time Cathy enjoys gardening, cooking, traveling, and vacations at the beach.



amille10@ris-corp.com	Design Engineer Adam Miller joins RIS with a Master's Degree in EE from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Adam's expertise is in the field of digital logic design and his background includes the development of sophisticated encryption algorithms as a project researcher after his graduaton. His research and design at RIS include FPGA implementation of digital signal processing algorithms for applications involving neutron-gamma discrimination, portable multi-channel analyzer (MCA) use for hold-up monitors, and for silicon strip electronics to determine energy and position in resistive strip applications. Adam and his wife Lara have recently been blessed with a healthy baby boy and are enjoying the experience as first-time parents. Their interests include camping and Medieval literature.



	Research Technician Joe Mode joined our production staff in November 1997. He has a B.A. in Anthropology as well as a B.S. in Broad Field Social Studies, both from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, 1985 and 1988, respectively. He has extensive experience in both production and prototype assembly and performs functional tests on products. Joe was recently inducted into the Southern Highland Craft Guild in recognition of his treenware wood carving craft, and he is an active Civil War buff. Joe was cast in the filming of the recently-released movie Gods and Generals as well as an A&E special about the film Cold Mountain.



	Susan Todd is majority owner and a member of the Board of Directors of RIS Corporation. As Secretary/Treasurer, she is chief financial officer and directs the administrative operations for the company including capital expenditures and facilities. Susan has a Master of Science in English Education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Susan was integral to the start-up of RIS and is key to the development and evolution of the business model.



	Brian Winton graduated in March 2006 from ITT Technical Institute in Knoxville with a major in Electronics and Communications Engineering Technology. Previously he attained his Certified Electronic Technician (ICET) - Associate Level, and graduated in August 2002 from Tennessee Institute of Electronics in Knoxville, Tennessee with a Specialized Associate Degree in Electronic Technology. Brian uses his technical skills in the assembly and testing of circuit boards and instrumentation as part of the RIS manufacturing team. In his spare time, Brian likes to cook and casseroles are his specialty!


Consultants



	Gary Armstrong is a contract employee with RIS Corp. through Maverick Systems, Inc., a company that specializes in robotics, robotic vision, and custom embedded systems. Gary received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, in 1981 and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in 1989. He is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Tennessee and has 20+ years of experience as an R&D engineer in the Robotics and Process Systems Division at ORNL where he obtained a patent for a robotic tracking system technology. Gary is proficient in the development of control and communications systems requiring real-time software, embedded micro-controllers, and digital state machines (discrete TTL logic, FPGAs, and custom VLSI). He is a member of IEEE, SPIE, Tau Beta Pi, Eta Kappa Nu, Omicron Kappa Delta, and Phi Kappa Phi, and has served as chairman of the East Tennessee/Oak Ridge IEEE Chapter of the Computer Society. He has written several LabView programs for RIS projects and is currently involved in production testing of the RIS DataBit used for downhole monitoring and logging applications.



	Rainer Riffert provides printed circuit board layout and mechanical packaging services to RIS Corp. Rainer received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from The University of Tennessee and is a member of the East Tennessee Inventor's Forum. He is proficient in surface mount design and packaging and has developed several consumer audio and rf products used with the Apple iPod. Rainer uses Protel schematic capture and layout tools and simulates circuit performance using several Spice packages.



	Joe Vrba develops and tests embedded microcontroller firmware for the RIS DataBit project through his company, Willowtree Software. Joe received his Ph.D. from The University of Tennessee in Nuclear Engineering and works in the field of vibration monitoring of industrial equipment for maintenance and reliability. His work with RIS includes algorithm development for embedded microcontrollers and data logging routines for battery-operated systems.

5905 Weisbrook Lane, Suite 101
Knoxville, TN 37909
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